A turn for the best
by Ganner Storm
Summary: This is the alternate story, a what if General Grievous had killed Obi Wan on Utapau, how will that change the History of the Galaxy? Will the Jedi Order Survive? will the Empire be as strong?..Full summary inside. Please Read and Review..Been Updated
1. A Turn for the Best

A turn for the best

This is the alternate story, what if General Grievous had killed Obi Wan on Utapau, how will that affect the Galaxy—will the Clone Wars be turned on its head from an almost certain Republic Victory to a Separatist Victory or will it not change the face of the Galaxy at all. I've added a few other new things to the story as well.

Dramatis Personae 

Aayla Secura; Jedi Knight (Female Twi'lek)  
Ahsoka Tano; Jedi Knight (Female Togruta)  
Anakin Skywalker; Jedi Knight (Male Human)  
Barriss Offee; Jedi Knight (Female Mirialan)  
Cad Bane; Bounty Hunter (Male Duros)  
Coleman Kcaj; Jedi Master (Male Ongree)  
General Grievous; Supreme Commander of the C.I.S  
Luminara Unduli; Jedi Master (Female Mirialan)  
Nute Gunray; Viceroy (Male Neimoidian)  
Quinlan Vos; Jedi Master (Male Kiffar)  
San Hill; Separatist Council Member  
Shaak Ti; Jedi Master (Female Togruta)  
Wat Tambor; Separatist Council Member (Male Skako)  
Yoda; Jedi Grand Master (Male Unknown)

Chapter One: A turn for the best

Obi Wan was crouched on the railings that hung from the ceiling, watching and listening to the Separatist Leaders talk and argue amongst each other. He had arrived here on Utapau, searching for General Grievous, who was now the main leader of the Separatists after the death of Count Dooku. _It's Grievous we need to end the war, the other Separatist Leaders will surrender, but it wouldn't do any harm to bring them all to justice at once. But there won't be anyone left to control their armies,_ Obi Wan thought to himself. Before Obi Wan had decided what would be the better course of action, the Separatist leaders were now leaving in a shuttle to the planet Mustafar, apparently.

General Grievous stood watching with his four magna guards as the Separatist Council members and the Viceroy's new guard—Cad Bane, made their way through into the next room where their shuttle—the _Lapiz Cutter_ was waiting to take them to their base on Mustafar. Grievous stood watching as the shuttle took off, and flew into the air and then space. His four Magna Guards stood on guard behind Grievous as well as thousands of other battle droids that were on this level of the city. Grievous stood silently in his own thoughts. _So the Jedi are sending Obi Wan Kenobi to fight me, without that interfering Anakin Skywalker and is even more annoying apprentice Ahsoka Tano, _Grievous thought to himself. He then heard something behind him drop behind him, but that didn't bother him until it spoke.

"Hello there," Said the familiar voice of Obi Wan Kenobi.

Grievous instantly turned around. "General Kenobi, you are a bold one. I've been waiting for your arrival." The Battle droids, Droidekas, Crab droids and Super battle droids in the room instantly stepped towards Obi Wan, aiming their weapons and the Magnaguards activated their own electrostaffs.

"Ah a nice warm welcome then," Obi Wan remarked with a grin.

"Kill him." Grievous ordered the Magnaguards as he stepped backwards. The four Magnaguards moved towards Obi Wan, who took out his lightsaber, ignited it and stepped into the normal Soresu Form III stance. As they came closer to Obi Wan, the Jedi Master raised his free hand and pointed it at a huge crate thing hanging from the ceiling above and used the Force to make it come crashing down on the droids; breaking them instantly.

_Jedi trickery, despicable, Jedi scum, _Grievous thought to himself as Obi Wan stepped around the huge crate thing and moved towards General Grievous.

"I'll deal with this Jedi slime myself," Grievous announced to the droids.

"Your move," Obi Wan said confidently.

"You fool I've been trained in your arts by Darth Tyrannus," General Grievous said as he placed his hands in his cloak, took out four lightsabers and split his two arms into four arms. Obi Wan smiled briefly at this, with his lightsaber still activated he held his defensive position.

"You mean Count Dooku? The one my apprentice just killed." Obi Wan said confidently.

Grievous raced forwards, spinning all his lightsabers so fast that it was like a vertical shield.

Obi Wan stepped back to try to maintain his balance, then as Grievous came racing towards him; he dashed forwards Grievous and met him straight on. Obi Wan parried Grievous first strike, as the two blue and green lightsabers came at him. Grievous then thrust two of the lightsabers straight at Kenobi, with the other two aiming for his legs. The Jedi Master jumped back to avoid the strike, rather than parry it all together. Obi Wan then raised his free hand, and force pushed Grievous sending him up to the ceiling; in the process he dropped his lightsabers, and he came back down to the ground. Grievous rushed towards his Cloak as the Jedi Master rushed towards the unarmed Cyborg. Grievous jumped into the air, landing just behind his cloak. Grievous picked up the cloak, and took out his blaster and fired several shots at Obi Wan that made him stop moving. Grievous then took out another lightsaber that was concealed in the cloak. Grievous watched as the Jedi Master was on the move again; he came rushing towards Grievous. Grievous ignited the lightsaber and still held firmly onto the blaster. Grievous once again charged towards Obi Wan to meet him. The two lightsabers clashed; blue clashed against blue. The two lightsabers held against each other, Grievous pushing it towards Obi Wan, then with his other free hand fired two shots with his blaster at the Jedi Master. It was a dead eye shot—straight into the chest. Obi Wan faltered now, he stepped back, and released his grip on the lightsaber.

"It looks like I win," Grievous said as Obi Wan dropped his lightsaber; it fell to the ground. Grievous instinctively picked it up and ignited it.

"You'll never win," Obi Wan said.

Grievous stabbed Obi Wan through the neck with both lightsabers and then across the chest. The famous Jedi Master fell to the ground and slumped in a heap. Grievous then heard blaster fire as the Clones had arrived.

"Damn, his Clone Army," Grievous said, he quickly collected his cloak and retrieved his lightsabers and added the new one to his collection. He summoned his vehicle that came up from the lower level, to this level. Grievous hopped on board and drove off out of the bay and outside, down below; passing and knocking over several Clones in the process.

Quickly enough Grievous arrived at his secret landing pad, where his personal starfighter—the _Soulless One_ was waiting. Grievous climbed into the starfighter, started the engines and took off. He soared up into space. As he flew into space, his small tactical display was showing the Republic fleet that were here invading Utapau. Grievous set lightspeed co-ordinates to a random but known planet in the Outer Rim, to hide from the Republic—if they were tracking him. Then he would set his co-ordinates for his real target, Mustafar.

Commander Cody and his squads of clones fought fiercely against the droids on these upper levels. Cody saw further on this level, what looked like the body of Obi Wan Kenobi.

"Move out!" Cody called the order to the other clones that were behind him. The Clones fully armed with their blaster rifles, and grenades raced forwards—but the droids were putting up an even, good fight. Cody finally arrived at the corpse, and indeed it was Obi Wan Kenobi. _I just saw Grievous go by on his bike, we could have shot him, but he was too fast for us,_ Cody thought to himself.

* * *

It was now late afternoon on Coruscant. Anakin stepped up the set of stairs that led up to the Jedi temple. As he came to the entrance, he felt a strong disturbance in the Force, but couldn't pin point what had happened. Anakin entered the Jedi temple where Jurokk was standing at the gates.

"Young Skywalker," The Gate Master Jurokk greeted.

"Hello gate master Jurokk," Anakin greeted. "Have you seen Master Windu anywhere?"

"He was preparing to go and pay a visit to Chancellor Palpatine," Jurokk answered. "He could be still in the hangar bay."

"Thanks." Anakin replied. Anakin hurried as quickly as he could to the hangar bay in the Jedi temple.

Anakin came into the hangar bay of the Jedi Temple, where there were a large number of Jedi starfighters parked and ready to go, along with supplies. There was also a Republic Attack Gunship near the hangar bay doors. Mace Windu and several of the other council members were stood waiting with him such as Shaak Ti, Agen Kolar, Saesee Tiin, Coleman Kcaj and Kit Fisto.

"What's going on?" Anakin asked Mace Windu.

"We have received grave news, Anakin," Mace said grimly.

"What, what is it?" Anakin asked, looking from one master to the other.

"General Grievous has killed Obi Wan, and has escaped us again," Saesee Tiin told him.

"Obi-Wan's dead?" Anakin said, with a tear or two forming in his eyes.

"I'm sorry Anakin," Shaak Ti said.

"No, I'm fine," Anakin said. "We will hunt Grievous for his crimes. However there is something else I must tell you Master Windu. I have learned the truth about the Chancellor."

"What do you mean Anakin?" Mace Windu asked.

"Palpatine is the Sith Lord we've been looking for, he won't give up his power," Anakin informed them. He looked at them; each of them looking surprised and shell shocked.

"You are sure, Anakin?" Mace Windu asked.

"Yes, Master," Anakin answered.

"Saesee Tiin, Agen Kolar, Kit Fisto and I will go to pay a visit to the new Sith Lord, while you, Shaak Ti and Coleman Kcaj stay here." Mace Windu said. "You will lock the gates until we return."

"No, you shouldn't rush into anything master," Coleman Kcaj debated. "You should contact Master Yoda first, and decide what to do then."

"What if you don't return?" Shaak Ti asked.

"Then you three are in charge of the temple till Master Yoda returns, as you are the only other Council Members here, including Anakin," Mace Windu replied, grimly.

"I should be going with you," Anakin said.

"No, I have made up my mind young Skywalker," Mace Windu said.

"He is the chosen one," Kit Fisto said. "He should go instead of me."

"Palpatine will have to give up his power," Mace Windu said.

"What about General Grievous if he is still alive?" Coleman Kcaj posed another question.

"We shall have to recall all the Jedi Knights and hunt solely for General Grievous, even if it takes every single Jedi Master," Mace Windu answered gloomily. "We shall leave now."

"Sorry to bother you Masters," Said a new voice, a male voice.

Mace Windu turned to look round and saw that it was Nejaa Halcyon.

"Master Halcyon, what is it?" Windu asked.

"Master Yoda has just made contact with us, and requests to speak to you urgently," Halcyon informed him.

"I will go speak to him," Windu told him. "Wait here till I return."

Nejaa Halcyon led him to the communications room within the Jedi Temple, and went inside one of the chambers. There was a large holoprojector in the middle of the room, and it was a hologram of Master Yoda.

"Master Yoda," Mace Windu greeted.

"Master Windu," Yoda greeted him in the same tone of respect. "Felt I have, the death of Obi Wan, pains me, it does."

"We believed if any Jedi could've defeated Grievous, it would've been him." Mace Windu said.

"Made the mistake we did, pay we have to for making it," Yoda said.

"Anakin Skywalker has found out the truth regarding the second Sith Lord that we have been looking for." Mace Windu told him.

"Yes," Yoda said simply.

"It is Chancellor Palpatine, I believe the boy is telling the truth," Mace Windu told him.

Yoda was silent for several moments, and blinked a few times. "Very disturbing this new discovery is. Certain are you?"

"We are going to arrest the Chancellor now," Windu said. "Then we will be certain."

"Too dangerous, he is," Yoda said. "Managed to keep his identity secret, he did, for too long. Wait you must, for me, and the other Masters to return to Coruscant."

"What do we do about General Grievous?" Mace Windu asked.

"No master Grievous will have, along with the other separatist leaders, once Palpatine has been taken out of office." Yoda said. "The War will be over. Young Skywalker must not be allowed to interfere, if you go to arrest him now."

"I had already decided that Anakin should stay at the temple with Shaak Ti and Coleman Kcaj." Mace Windu said.

Yoda nodded in agreement.

* * *

The _Soulless One_ came out of hyperspace, in the Mustafar system. General Grievous saw that there were three Trade Federation Cruisers up in the Planet's orbit. Grievous flew the specialised starfighter down into the planet's atmosphere. The _Soulless One _landed on a small landing pad, outside the Separatist bunker. General Grievous climbed out of the starfighter and walked over to the entrance to the bunker and walked inside. Grievous walked down the corridor and came into the main chamber where all the other Separatist leaders were waiting for him.

"General Grievous, you are still alive," Nute Gunray greeted, sounding slightly surprised.

"Thank you for your concern Viceroy," Grievous said, staring at him.

"Did you fight Kenobi then?" Cad Bane, the famous Duros bounty hunter, who had been hired by Dooku and the Separatists.

"Yes, here is his lightsaber," Grievous took out Obi Wan's lightsaber from in his cloak. "That Jedi won't be bothering us again."

"That is excellent news," San Hill said.

"I always doubted your capability, but now you have added one of the greatest Jedi to your trophy collection. We may still win this war." Gunray said.

"What is our next move?" San Hill asked.

"Contact Lord Sidious," Grievous decided. He took out his personal commlink, and activated it. Lord Sidious appeared on screen.

"General Grievous," Lord Sidious said in a surprised tone of voice that brought frowns from some of the other Separatist Leaders. "You defeated Obi Wan Kenobi then?"

"Yes, here is his lightsaber," Grievous showed him his lightsaber, as he was still holding it. He then placed it back inside his cloak.

"This is good news," Sidious said. "The war is almost over. The final move is about to happen."

"What is that?" Grievous asked.

"The capture of my new apprentice," Sidious said.

"And who might that be?" Grievous posed another question.

"Skywalker," Sidious told him, as it would do no harm, and as this is a private channel, there was a slim chance anybody was listening.

"Skywalker," Grievous repeated in disgust.

"You have made it easier for me to convert him, without the influence of his master," Sidious said. "You will all be rewarded for your hard work, during the Clone Wars."

"That's good to hear," Gunray said, listening into his conversation.

"What about the other remaining Jedi?" Grievous asked.

"They will be all destroyed," Sidious replied. "As they will be outlawed in my new Galactic Empire and the Jedi religion will be no more."

"Empire?" Gunray asked.

"Yes, it will do no harm to know that," Sidious said. "End transmission." The hologram went blank.

"Empire," Gunray repeated. "We were fighting for Independence, not an empire. We didn't want anything to do with the Republic."

"Do you think Count Dooku knew about this?" Cad Bane asked.

"I do not know," General Grievous said honestly.

"What happens to us when he turns the Republic into the Empire?" Passel Argente asked.

"What about Chancellor Palpatine?" Gunray posed another question.

"He'll probably kill him, if he has any sense," Cad Bane answered.

"Unless," Grievous said, theorizing.

"He is the Chancellor," Cad Bane offered.

"W-what?" Both Gunray and San Hill spoke up.

"We've never seen Sidious face," Grievous said. "He always wears that hood like the Jedi. What has he got to hide? His identity."

"You're only realising this now, after several years of fighting in a war for him?" Gunray demanded.

"Well yes," Grievous answered. "Why do you think he was surprised to speak to me?"

"I don't know," Gunray said.

"Because he expected Obi Wan to kill Grievous on Utapau," Cad Bane said. "The Chancellor is the only one who can give orders out to the Jedi."

"How did Sidious know that the Council were going to send Obi Wan to fight me unless he actually had direct contact with the Jedi Council." Grievous said.

"How come you're working this all out now then?" Gunray asked again.

"Well who else strong in politics could be Darth Sidious?" Grievous answered with a question.

"Okay, let's assume Chancellor Palpatine is Darth Sidious," San Hill said. "But we and the Jedi and the rest of the Republic have been following his sole orders, in a two war, but if you're right it was a one way war."

"Why would anyone conduct a war for two or three years, if it's against yourself?" San Hill asked.

"To weaken an opponent," Grievous said.

"What opponent?" Gunray asked.

"Us, or the Jedi," Grievous offered.

"Ah, what do we do now?" San Hill asked.

"We have a number of different choices, we could stay here," Cad Bane offered. "Better we could leave this planet and restart our organisation somewhere else and begin to fight back against the Chancellor. We could even join the renegade Jedi, who will probably be destroyed. Or we could stick with the Chancellor and be deceived by him again and again. Or most likely he will kill us all if we stay."

"Jedi..." Grievous said out aloud, thinking in disgust of joining the Jedi.

"We should go and warn the Jedi, and rescue them from Coruscant, so they can fight against the Chancellor or Emperor." Cad Bane suggested.

"Fight alongside the Jedi?" Nute Gunray exclaimed in disgust.

"Or we fight alone, the Separatist army has been almost drained from this war as have the Jedi." Cad Bane said.

"If you want to work alongside the Jedi General, I'm afraid; Count Dooku did alter your mind." San Hill told him, stepping a few feet away from the General.

"W-what!" Grievous demanded in outrage. "I told them not to change my mind."

"Sidious and Dooku went against your and my wishes," San Hill half-lied as he did agree to the mind altering but there was no one here to disagree with him who was there at the time, apart from Poggle the Lesser, but he kept quiet. "We can have it removed."

"Be quick, and remove," General Grievous said.

"Come with me, and we'll go into the medical room, where the droids can remove it from your mind." San Hill said.

Grievous followed San Hill out of the main conference room, and down the hall.

"Maybe he'll get some manners," Nute Gunray said after he had left.

"We must prepare to leave this planet, and head elsewhere," Cad Bane said. "Sidious knows we are here, he'll probably send his new apprentice to kill us. I would rather not have to deal with Skywalker again for the time being at least."

"I guess you are right, but you aren't in charge," Shu Mai agreed with him.

"We need to rescue the Jedi," Cad Bane.

"Why?" Gunray asked.

"One of the two most annoying Jedi is dead and the other's about to become a Sith, so we won't have to deal with them again. Most of the other Jedi we haven't even met, they maybe more approachable than Skywalker and Kenobi." Cad Bane said. "We need them to help us to fight the new Empire."

The Separatists waited in the conference room for General Grievous to return from his new surgery. Grievous and San Hill returned to the conference room.

"We have successfully removed the chip," San Hill announced. "So you should be less aggressive towards the Jedi and other people in general."

"Good," Grievous replied. "I'll take one cruiser to Coruscant and try to contact the Jedi."

"Where will rendezvous?" Gunray asked.

"A good place would be Nar Shaddaa," Cad Bane said. "I have many associates there that can help us, and its way away from Coruscant."

"Good," Grievous repeated. "I will bring as many Jedi as I can before the rest of them get exterminated." Grievous then turned and headed out into the corridor, and then to the exit.

"I hope he knows what he's doing," Gunray said after he had left.

"He does," Cad Bane said.

* * *

Mace Windu had indeed decided to go and arrest the Chancellor, to end the Clone Wars; once and for all. Mace Windu was stood in the Republic Gunship, alongside Saesee Tiin, Agen Kolar, and Kit Fisto—who had to come as Anakin Skywalker was not allowed to face the Chancellor. _I hope we've made the right decision in going to the Chancellor's office,_ Mace Windu thought to himself. _May the Force be with us all, or this could turn out very bad. I hope we don't come to regret rushing into arrest the Chancellor without the guidance of Master Yoda._ Mace Windu thought to himself.

Shaak Ti was meditating in one of the many chambers in the temple. She sensed the confusion within Skywalker. She sensed the anticipation and concerns from the Jedi Masters going to face Palpatine. She sensed all the Jedi inside the temple were worried about the outcome, as they had all been informed that the Chancellor was the Sith Lord all the Jedi had been looking for. She came out of her trance as she heard the chamber door open. Coleman Kcaj was standing in the doorway.

"Jedi knight Aayla Secura and Barriss Offee have made contact with us, and request to speak to you as well as me," Coleman Kcaj said.

"Okay," Shaak Ti said, standing up to her feet.

Anakin was sat alone in the Jedi Council chamber. He was sat with his thoughts racing through his mind. _'I have the power to save the one you love,' _Palpatine's words raced through his head, '_The Jedi are planning to betray me, they plan to overthrow me,'_ _I can't sit here and allow the Jedi to kill him, he has the power to save Padme, I must do something to stop this madness, _Anakin thought to himself. Anakin got up to his feet, he sensed someone at the chamber entrance door. He saw the door open and standing in the doorway was Ahsoka Tano.

"Anakin," Ahsoka greeted.

"I'm kinda in a rush at the moment, Snips," Anakin said.

"I'm sorry to hear about Obi Wan," Ahsoka said. "I've not spoken to you for a while; you've been off hunting down the Sith Lords and what not."

"We'll talk later on, okay," Anakin said.

"Alright, I hope you keep your promise," Ahsoka said.

"I'll try," Anakin replied. Ahsoka turned and left the council chamber.

Anakin rushed out of the council chamber and headed as quickly as he could to the temple doors.

Anakin came to the gate doors and Jurokk was standing there on guard.

"Open the gates, I need to leave," Anakin said.

"Master Windu gave me strict orders to make sure you remain here while they deal with the Chancellor," Jurokk said.

"Let me go," Anakin said. He couldn't be bothered dealing with him, he felt his anger rising inside him.

"No sorry Anakin," Jurokk said, shaking his head.

"Just let me go," Anakin said. "Fine, I'll open the gates myself." Anakin moved towards the door, but Jurokk stood in his path, taking out his lightsaber and igniting it.

"You can't leave." Jurokk said.

Anakin took out his own lightsaber and ignited it. "You can just walk away, and let me pass."

Jurokk shook his head. "Sorry, Anakin." Jurokk stabbed the lightsaber, towards Anakin, Anakin parried the strike. Anakin struck the lightsaber upwards, that cut his arm as Jurokk tried to parry it but he was the one with hardly any space. Jurokk dropped the lightsaber.

"Can I go now?" Anakin asked.

"If you must," Jurokk said, stepping out of the way. Anakin opened the gates, and rushed outside into the night.

* * *

Mace Windu and the four other Jedi Masters arrived in the Senate building, and they walked down the corridor to the Chancellor's office. Mace sensed the Chancellor sat inside his office, but his mind and thoughts were very hard to read. The four Jedi came into the Chancellor's office and saw him swivel around in his chair to face the Jedi Masters.

"Master Windu," Chancellor Palpatine said. "Did you manage to defeat General Grievous?"

"In the name of the Galactic Republic of the Senate, you're under arrest," Mace Windu said as he and the other Jedi took out their lightsabers and ignited them; all four—two blue, one green and a purple buzzing to life before the Chancellor.

"On what grounds?" Palpatine demanded.

"For being a Sith Lord," Mace Windu said. "The Senate will decide your fate."

"I am the Senate," Palpatine growled.

"Not yet," Mace Windu shot back.

"This is treason. How dare you go against the Chancellor and the Republic?" Palpatine howled.

"You have remained in office for too long, we have reason to believe you are the Sith Lord that we have been looking for." Mace Windu said.

"You are traitors of the Galactic Republic!" Palpatine exclaimed, and he stood up.

Mace Windu watched as a lightsaber appeared in his right hand, concealed from his robes, and he ignited it. He force jumped into the air, while emitting a loud animal like roar, as he swirled through mid-air. Palpatine landed on the ground in front of Agen Kolar and stabbed him through the chest so fast that, he didn't have a chance to react. Kolar's body fell to the ground; Mace Windu stepped back and took a swipe at Palpatine but he just blocked it and then moved onto Saesee Tiin. Palpatine slashed Saesee Tinn; his head dropped from his shoulders so fast, before he really had a chance to react.


	2. The End of the Clone Wars

Chapter 2 The End of the Clone Wars 

General Grievous was stood on the bridge of his new Trade Federation Cruiser; which he had proudly named, the _New Hope_. The Trade Federation Cruiser came out of lightspeed and arrived in orbit over Coruscant. His mind told him to head to the chancellor's building, and deal with him then and there; but it would be difficult without help, maybe he should head to the Jedi temple first. He shook his head at that idea.

"I will go to the Chancellor's office, while you prepare to send the dropships to rescue the Jedi." Grievous told the captain.

"Yes General," The battle droid answered.

Grievous headed off the bridge, and headed to the hangar bay. When he reached the hangar bay he climbed into the _Soulless One_, and soared out of the hangar bay.

* * *

Palpatine stabbed Kit Fisto in the chest with his red sabre, after Kit had parried the first two strikes, but Palpatine's dark, twisted strikes had gotten the better of the Nautolan Jedi. Palpatine swept towards Mace in a large arc, the Jedi Master parried the strike, as he continued to move into the next room.

Anakin arrived at the chancellor's office, and hurried as quickly as he could to the Chancellor's office. _I hope the Jedi haven't killed him already, I need him,_ raced through his mind as he ran.

Mace continued to parry and push away the deadly strikes from the Sith Lord, the purple and red lightsaber continued to clash and collide against each other, even when they reached the window at the end of the room. Mace watched as Palpatine smashed the window, in a low arching sweep. Mace raised his right leg and kicked Palpatine's lightsaber out of his hand; his lightsaber flying out of the window. Palpatine fell to the ground and crawled to the corner of the window. Mace sensed Anakin come into the room, even though it had been against his and the council wishes.

"Anakin, I told you, the Jedi are taking over!" Palpatine shouted.

"Don't listen to him Anakin," Mace Windu said. "You have lost my Lord."

"No, no, you have!" Palpatine cried as he raised his hands, and emitted a shower of lightning at the Jedi master. Mace Windu blocked it with his lightsaber, bringing it up towards his face to protect himself. "You must choose Anakin!" The lightning reflected and went back into Palpatine, his face rapidly began to degenerate; he began to look much older than he really did.

"I will end this now!" Mace said as Palpatine stopped the lightning.

"I'm too weak." Palpatine said, pretending to be a frail old man—well he now looked the part, with scars all over his face.

"You can't kill him," Anakin said. "I need him."

"He is too dangerous to be kept alive."

"Please I need him." Anakin begged the Jedi Master.

Mace held the lightsaber over his shoulder and began to bring it down towards the Sith Lord.

"No!" Anakin said. He took out his own lightsaber and ignited it as Mace's was still in mid-air. The blue lightsaber cut upwards and intercepted the purple lightsaber; both lightsabers clashed against each other.

Mace turned and gave Anakin a hard stare.

"I can't allow you to kill him," Anakin argued.

"Step aside, Skywalker," Mace said, in no mood for arguing.

Anakin broke the deadlock, turned and stepped in front of Palpatine—to block the Jedi's view of the Sith Lord.

"You have allowed this dark lord to twist your mind, Anakin," Mace said. Mace stabbed his lightsaber towards Anakin, who blocked it with his blue lightsaber.

"No, you're wrong, it was you and the Jedi who twisted me," Anakin shot back.

"Then you are truly lost, Anakin," Mace said, as he broke the lightsaber deadlock. Mace stepped to his side, and continued to stare at Anakin. Mace stabbed towards Anakin with his lightsaber, Anakin once again parried using his form V stance. The Purple and blue blade clashed again in a deadlock, but this time Mace was winning. Mace pushed the purple blade towards Anakin, aiming for his right arm. Anakin tried to push the purple blade away from, but Mace this time was too strong for him, the purple blade sliced into his arm; causing it to fuse. Anakin flinched, Mace then went down into a low sweeping arch towards Anakin's legs; Anakin tried to block it but the Jedi Master was too quick. Anakin screamed in pain as the purple blade sliced through the knees of both of his legs. Anakin fell to the ground, dropping his lightsaber.

"You have lost my lord," Mace said.

Palpatine glared at him in anger, he raised himself off the ground, raising both hands; he used the Force to lift Mace off the ground, Force choking him in mid-air. Palpatine then Force threw him out into the corridor, out of sight. Palpatine then rushed over to Anakin.

"My boy you are still alive," Palpatine said, as he kneeled down beside him. "You need medical attention. Anakin you are fulfilling your destiny, you will become a great Sith Lord, become my apprentice."

Mace found himself in a heap in the corridor. He felt pain across his body and chest from the Sith's strike. Mace saw his lightsaber lying on the floor near him; he crawled towards it and picked it up. _I can't stay here, I have to warn the Jedi Temple_, Mace thought to himself. He quickly began to move towards the door. He heard and saw the door at the end of the corridor open sideways. He saw a pair of mechanical legs moving towards him at a quick pace, he recognised them instantly as them belonging to General Grievous. General Grievous stopped in front of him and the most unbelievable thing happened next; General Grievous offered him his hand. Mace took without questioning him.

"We must go," Mace Windu said. "It's too late for Anakin. We must head back to the Jedi Temple as quickly as we can. You can explain later." Both Mace and General Grievous rushed at full speed out of the chancellor's suite; leaving the two Sith Lords behind.

"I-I will do whatever you say my master," Anakin said.

"Good," Sidious replied. "You will be known as Darth Vader." Sidious took out his commlink. He pressed several buttons on it, with Mas Amedda appearing as a hologram.

"We need medical support here immediately, at the Chancellors Suite," Palpatine said. "And a squad of Clones would be well advised. The Jedi have tried to take power."

"Right away Chancellor," Mas Amedda said. His hologram then quickly disappeared.

"When you have been healed, you must go to the temple and destroy all of them," Palpatine said. "Master Windu has probably already escaped and warned them. But they have no way off the planet, and there are too many of them too escape by public transport." He looked around, to face Anakin Skywalker. "After that, I want you to go to Mustafar, and wipe out all the Separatist Leaders. Then we can truly have peace and put an end to the Clone Wars, once and for all."

"Good," Anakin replied.

* * *

Grievous and Mace arrived at the Jedi temple by flying in the _Soulless One_, at a slow speed because Mace Windu was sat outside on top of the starfighter. Grievous landed the shuttle just before the steps.

"We need to get away from here as quickly as possible, before the Chancellor declares us enemies to the Republic." Mace Windu said.

"I will contact my dropships that are waiting in orbit" General Grievous said as he took out his commlink while Mace Windu ran up the stairs and into the temple.

Mace came inside the temple, and saw Jurokk standing by the door.

"Master Windu, what has happened?" Jurokk asked.

"We need to get off the planet, now," Mace Windu said. "The Chancellor is going to have us outlawed. He is too powerful. General Grievous has come to help us."

"W-what?" Jurokk asked.

"He has come to save us," Mace said. "Where are Shaak Ti and Coleman Kcaj?"

"They are up in the Council Chambers," Jurokk answered. "Where is Grievous?"

"He is outside, contacting his ships," Mace replied. On the way to the Council Chamber, he met several of the younger Jedi. "Go get your things; we are leaving the Jedi Temple. Bring only what you need."

"W-what?" Whie Malreaux asked, sounding very shocked as looked at the Jedi Master with wide eyes.

"Do as I say, we don't have time for this." Mace said, hurrying along.

Whie and his friends obeyed, and they hurried to their dorms to collect their belongings.

* * *

Finally the medical team arrived at the Chancellor's suite. The medical droids and medical officers picked up Anakin off the ground carefully and placed him on top of a floating stretcher. Mas Amedda was with them as well, along with the battalion of Clone Troopers.

"What has happened, my Lord?" Amedda asked as he saw Palpatine's scarred face.

"The Jedi Order has betrayed us," Palpatine informed him. "They have gone against the Galactic Republic, they have betrayed the Senate, and they have betrayed democracy itself. Their attack has left me scarred permanently." He said very sharply.

"What are we going to do Chancellor Palpatine?" Amedda asked him.

"Their betrayal will be dealt with." Palpatine said as he took out his commlink. He pressed several buttons on the commlink. Clone Commander Rex appeared on the screen.

"Commander, it is time, execute order 66," Palpatine said into the commlink.

"Yes, your Excellency," Commander Rex responded. The transmission ended.

"Good, everything will go as I have planned." Palpatine replied.

* * *

Mace Windu came into the Jedi Council Chamber and found Coleman Kcaj, Shaak Ti sat in their chairs talking with Nejaa Halcyon and Cin Drallig.

"Master, you have returned!" Shaak Ti exclaimed, speaking up before the others.

"Where are the others?" Cin Drallig questioned.

"They did not make it," Mace Windu answered. "Palpatine is the Sith Lord and believes we have betrayed him, and the Galactic Republic. We don't have much time. We have to leave now."

"Leave?" Nejaa said. "We don't have enough ships to carry everyone."

"General Grievous has brought a cruiser to help save us," Mace Windu explained.

"What!" All of them exclaimed at once.

"Yes, he saved me from Palpatine, and has offered to take us away from here; as many as he can carry on his cruiser." Mace Windu continued to explain.

"I for one don't believe him," Cin Drallig spoke in disgust. "He has killed many Jedi, he cannot be forgiven for his atrocities."

"Times have changed rapidly, you must trust him," Mace said. "Or he would have killed me already."

"No, I will take my chances here." Cin Drallig said. "The Chancellor can't do anything against us without the approval of the Senate."

"Well, stay here then as we don't have time to argue all night." Mace Windu said.

"I'll get my things together," Shaak Ti said, standing up, Coleman Kcaj nodded in agreement with her, as he stood up.

"We will hold back the Forces of Evil," Cin Drallig said. "The Sith are no match for the Jedi."

"That's your choice to fight now or save it for another day." Shaak Ti told him.

"Come, I've already told some of the younger Jedi to get their things together." Mace Windu said. Mace Windu, Shaak Ti and Coleman Kcaj exited the Jedi Council Chamber, leaving Nejaa Halcyon and Cin Drallig behind.

"We will defend the Jedi Order tonight," Halcyon said.

"Yes," Drallig said simply. "If all goes wrong then at least there will be a last hope in the form of the Council Members and the younglings that leave tonight."

"Agreed," Halcyon said. "After they have gone, we will destroy the records containing the names of all the Jedi, so they will never fall into the hands of the Sith."

* * *

The War on Kashyyyk continued between the Galactic Republic and the Separatists, and the war had been going on for several months now; even before Master Yoda had arrived here.

Master Yoda and Master Unduli were in one of the Wookie huts. They had been fighting alongside the Wookies, to defend the shoreline but they had received word that the Separatists had started attacking other cities on the planet. Now two of the three Jedi who were here on Kashyyyk, were reviewing their tactics here in this Wookie hut; while Quinlan Vos was off helping other Wookies in another city. Tarful and Chewbacca were stood in there with them and Clone Commander Bree was stood outside, on guard. Chewbacca looked at Tarful and growled as they saw Commander Bree and his other Clone officer come into the room holding their blaster rifles. As the clones approached them; preparing to kill them, Yoda sensed the attack, and reacted by jumping into the air backwards, igniting his lightsaber and slashing both clones across the chest, which all happened in several seconds. Yoda landed on the ground beside them, the two Wookies growled.

"Were they were about to kill us?" Luminara Unduli asked turning around to look at Yoda.

Yoda nodded. "Betrayed we must have been, by the Chancellor," Yoda said. "Leave we must." Luminara nodded, and headed towards the door, but waited as Yoda jumped up her and sat on her shoulders. The two Jedi and the Wookies quickly made their way out of the hut and into the forest.

* * *

Ki Adi Mundi was leading a small squad of Clone Troopers through the city of Mygeeto, across a bridge that led further into the city. The Jedi Master could see the droid remnants moving back, but that Tri-droid fired several rockets that went blasting over head.

"Come on!" Ki Adi Mundi shouted. "We've nearly driven the Separatists off this planet, for good." He swung his lightsaber up in the air.

"You won't need that again sir," The Clone Commander said, as he was commenting on his lightsaber. "Fire!" The troopers aimed and fired at the Jedi Master. Mundi span round, and blocked the first few lasers, but he was soon overwhelmed. Lasers sprayed into his chest, he went down to the ground, his face facing downwards.

* * *

Plo Koon was flying in an Arc-170 starfighter, flying over one of the bridges on Cato Neimoidia. He was flying with an escort of two other Arc-170's piloted by Clone Troopers. They were doing an overhead surveillance, making sure there were no lingering droids of the Separatists still in the city. As he carried on flying, he saw lasers flash past; coming from behind. He wondered what was attacking him; whatever it was got a deadeye shot as lasers hit is engines. He spun out of control; he looked over his shoulder and saw it was his own escort. He then began to dive out of the air, and crashed onto the bridge and it exploded in a ball of flames devouring the Jedi.

* * *

General Grievous was still stood outside the Jedi temple, some of the Jedi including that annoying Ahsoka Tano and a few notable others—and even one Jedi who was on a stretcher in a coma, had boarded a dropship and had been taken up to the Trade Federation Cruiser in orbit. In fact in total so far three dropships full of Jedi had been taken up the _New Hope_. He saw Mace Windu, and another recognisable Jedi—Shaak Ti, an Ongree Jedi and a Wiphid Jedi come out of the temple, the four Jedi approached Grievous. One of the dropships returned to make one more trip before they had to leave.

"Obviously you remember Shaak Ti," Mace Windu said to Grievous.

"Of course," Grievous said.  
"Not everyone can come, some have decided to stay, to give us a chance," Shaak Ti said.

Grievous nodded. "Is everyone who is coming nearly ready?"

"Yes, in fact we are the last ones to come," Mace Windu said. "But there are many Jedi out on many planets that aren't here, like Master Yoda, who we will have to contact and pick up."

"Right let's get going," Grievous said.

"This is Master Coleman Kcaj," Mace Windu introduced.

Grievous nodded in acknowledgement.

"I guess we are allies, at least for now." Coleman Kcaj noted.

Grievous then looked at the Wiphid Jedi. "I recognise you from somewhere."

"Hypori," K'Kruhk suggested.

"Ah, so you survived," Grievous said. "Interesting."

"Yes, the pleasure is all mine." K'Kruhk replied.

The four of them boarded the dropship while Grievous took flight in his _Soulless One_. They soon arrived in the hangar bay of the _New Hope_. General Grievous went up to the bridge, where some of the Jedi were present there.

"Where are we heading to then?" Mace Windu asked as he followed the General onto the bridge.

"Nar Shaddaa for now," Grievous told him.

"Yes, that would be a good place to hide from the Sith," Shaak Ti nodded in agreement.

"The Smuggler's moon," Coleman Kcaj remarked.

"Head to Nar Shaddaa wait head to a nearby planet first to dissent anyone from tracking us," Grievous ordered the captain. "Don't tell the Jedi in the temple that we're heading to Nar Shaddaa, or the Sith will get it out of them."

"Of course not," Mace Windu said.

"How come you're saving us?" Asked a female voice.

"And who are you?" Grievous said turning around to look at the young human female Jedi.

"Talisbeth," The girl answered.

"I'm saving you because it is the right thing to do," Grievous answered.

"Yes," Talisbeth nodded. "But you used to hunt Jedi."

"Things can change all of a sudden." Grievous said.

"Okay," Talisbeth said. "As long as you don't betray us."

"I won't," Grievous replied as the _New Hope_ left Coruscant's orbit and into hyperspace. She then turned and walked off the bridge to join her friends—where ever they were.

"Wait we have to contact the other Jedi," Coleman Kcaj spoke up.

"Ah," Grievous said. "Where will they be?" Grievous asked.

"We know Master Yoda was on Kashyyyk," Mace Windu said. "Along with Luminara Unduli and Quinlan Vos. Aayla Secura and Barriss Offee are on Felucia."

"Where are we going?" Grievous asked the captain.

"I will set co-ordinates for Saluecami," The battle droid replied.

"Right," Grievous said. "We're going to have to pick some renegade Jedi up."

"Ki Adi Mundi is on Mygeeto," Shaak Ti said. "Plo Koon is on Cato Neimoidia. Stass Allie is on Saleucami. I can't remember all of the planets that the Jedi were stationed on."

* * *

Palpatine stood near the medical bed that had Anakin lying on it as he had surgery. The doctors and surgeons were constructing him two metal legs to replace his lost limbs, similar to how Grievous was constructed. Palpatine had made sure the steel was a very light metal so that Anakin would be still flexible in moving around. A mechanic had already repaired the damage on the arm caused by Mace Windu's lightsaber.

* * *

Aayla Secura and Barriss Offee were walking on the surface of Felucia. They were still here fighting off the Separatists. They had a small squad of clones tagging along with them, only about four of them as they headed to one of the last Separatist bases here—but it wasn't well defended and reinforcements were on their way. The two Jedi Knights sensed a disturbance in the Force, the two Jedi spun round, activating their lightsabers. They turned and face the four Clones; who were aiming their large rifles at them. Aayla and Barriss parried their laser fire. Barriss being a Form III user, sent some of the lasers back at the Clones; killing two of them. Aayla ran towards the remaining two, one firing at her and the other at Offee. Barriss sent the lasers back at the second to last Clone; killing him. She looked over at Aayla who had just finished cutting down the last Clone trooper.

"The Clones have betrayed us for some reason," Aayla said as Barriss walked over to her. They both sensed something else in the Force.

"The Force is trying to tell us something," Aayla said.

Barriss nodded in agreement. "Help is on the way, we just have to hide from the Clone Troopers till it comes."


	3. Survival

Chapter 3 Survival

Stass Allie was driving a speeder bike through the dark planet of Saleucami, driving alongside two Clones who were driving their own speeder bikes. The three of them were returning to the Clone base after surveying the wreckage of the droid base they had destroyed earlier on today. She saw yellow lasers flashing past her, missing her by only a few inches. She looked over her shoulder and saw that it was the Clones! She tried as best as she could to evade the lasers. _Why are they trying to kill me?_ Stass Allie's mind raced with her thoughts. The lasers then got a direct hit onto her speeder, knocking her out of control. She went spinning into a nearby tree and exploding into flames on impact.

* * *

Anakin stood up of the operating table, he had two new mechanical legs that went down from the knee to where his feet used to be. They were made to look organic, but obviously werent organic.  
"Are you any better, Lord Vader?" Palpatine asked, looking at his new apprentice.

"The pain has gone," Anakin answered. The legs feeled surprisingly light, despite being made of some form of metal or something.

"The 501st legion has returned to Coruscant, and is ready to exterminate the Jedi Order, once and for all." Palpatine informed him.

"Yes, good," Anakin said.

"Are you ready?" Palpatine asked.

"Yes I am," Anakin answered honestly.

"Good," Palpatine replied. "You might be able to catch them off guard unless Mace Windu has warned them. No doubt he'll be there waiting for you."

"What about the other Jedi fighting on all the other planets?" Anakin asked.

"Their betrayal has already been dealt with." Palpatine informed him.

"I will go now then." Anakin decided.

"Good. Then I want you to go to Mustafar, and wipe out all the Separatist Leaders. Then truly there will be peace again." Palpatine said.

"I agree." Anakin said.

* * *

Darth Vader marched up the stairs of the Jedi temple, with the 501st Legion following behind him; all of them armed to the teeth. Anakin ignited his lightsaber, and stabbed through one of the temple gate doors, and began to cut through it. He heard someone on the other side of it shouting—sounded like that fool Jurokk. Anakin made the incision and cut a large portion of the gate open—big enough to fit the clones through two at a time at least. He saw Jurokk on the inside.

"Anakin!" Jurokk shouted, as he ignited his lightsaber.

Anakin raised his left hand and Force lifted him off the ground.

"Put me down Anakin! And fight me like a Jedi!" Jurokk shouted.

Vader pulled the Gate master out into the open and he tossed him down on the ground in front of the Clones. "Kill him." The Clones aimed at Jurokk and fired. Lasers poured into him as he lay on the ground with his facing the floor. "Let's move out."

Vader and the clones marched through the Jedi temple, encountering much fewer Jedi than he had anticipated. He saw a group of Jedi coming towards them from one of the corridor's and they saw several more Jedi knights down the other hall way.

"Kill them all, spare none of them." Vader said. He recognised the first group of Jedi that were being led by his own instructor, Cin Drallig, and other Jedi such as Jocasta Nu, Nejaa Halcyon, Serra Keto and some Jedi he did not know.

"Anakin!" Cin Drallig said. "We've been expecting you." He said as he ignited his lightsaber.

"Prepare to die old man," Vader shot back as he rushed towards Cin Drallig and was about to stab him, but the old man blocked his attack with his green lightsaber. Serra Keto ignited both of her green lightsabers and Force jumped towards the nearest clone, landed on the ground in front of it and sliced it across the chest.

"Die traitors!" Serra Keto cried. Several more clones began firing at her. Serra parried the lasers, and sent some of the lasers back at the Clones while some of the lasers hit the wall.

"Where is Shaak Ti?" Vader demanded as he took a swipe towards Cin Drallig's neck, but he managed to block the strike. Cin Drallig laughed, as he continued to hold up against the new Sith Lord.

"You silly boy, you won't find her," Cin Drallig mocked. Cin Drallig parried yet another powerful blow from the Sith Lord.

Vader was growing tired of this charade, as the two lightsabers hit another deadlock. Vader released his left hand off his lightsaber, and continued to block with his right, and began to Force Choke Cin Drallig. This distracted Cin Drallig as he released himself from the deadlock.

"Where are Shaak Ti and Mace Windu?"Vader shouted.

"I-I honestly d-don't know..." Cin Drallig answered.

Anakin then Force tore his throat, blood gushed out and he released him from his grip, the dead body of Cin Drallig dropped to the floor.

"No!" Serra Keto shouted.

"I will allow you to breathe a little bit longer, if you tell me where Shaak Ti and Mace Windu are hiding." Anakin said.

"Never," Serra Keto exclaimed. She charged towards Anakin, swinging both of her lightsabers at Anakin. Vader dodged the first lightsaber and parried the second, but she brought the other one in the direction of Anakin's head. Vader stepped back a foot, and dodged the green lightsaber by pushing it away with his own blue lightsaber. Vader raised his left hand and began to Force choke Serra Keto; she dropped one of her lightsabers that fell onto the ground. Vader Force pulled her second lightsaber that came flying into his left hand; but because he did this, she had been released from his Force choke. She fell down onto her knees on the ground.

"Where are Mace Windu and Shaak Ti?" Vader asked her once more.

"I don't know," Serra Keto said, not looking up at Anakin. Serra could see and hear the numerous other Jedi that had decided to stay behind—they had to or the Empire would search for them for the rest of their lives; some had to stay behind.

"Then you are of no use to me," Anakin said, full of rage, as he walked over to her. He slashed her across the neck using both lightsabers. Her body fell to the floor with a look of dread on her face.

* * *

The _New Hope_ came out of hyperspace near Saleucami. The scanners thankfully weren't picking up any Republic cruisers in orbit over the planet. They waited for a while, as one of the Jedi Masters K'Kruhk tried to contact Stass Allie that was based down there on the planet. They waited for several moments and there was no response.

"I'm not getting anything," K'Kruhk said, shaking his head in dissapointment. He looked at some of the other Jedi on the bridge, Quinlan Vos, who opened up to the Force.

"I don't sense the presence of our friends down there," Quinlan Vos replied.

"We can't stay here forever." Grievous said slightly on edge. "Time to set co-ordinates for Cato Neimoidia next then."

"Right away General," The battle droid replied.

The Trade Federation Cruiser went back into lightspeed.

"It won't take long to reach Cato Neimoidia," Grievous said.

"No, it won't," Shaak Ti agreed.

The other Jedi on board the _New Hope_ began to settle like it was already their new home.

Ahsoka Tano was sat in one of the corridors alongside Whie Malreaux, Talisbeth, Zett Jukassa and Maris Brood.

"Where do you think we're going?" Whie asked.

"No idea," Zett answered, shrugging his shoulders.

The _New Hope_ soon dropped out of lightspeed once more as they arrived outside of Cato Neimoidia. Grievous stared in disapproval, as he could see several Republic Class Venator Cruisers were in orbit over Cato Neimoidia.

"The Republic is still here." Grievous said. "Can you contact the Jedi Master down there?"

"Yes," Shaak Ti answered.

Mace Windu took out his personal commlink and pressed in a few buttons.

"We'll need to get going before they notice us." Grievous said, watching the positioning of the cruisers very closely; for the time being they were motionless.

"He's not responding," Mace said.

"Then he probably isn't alive anymore," Grievous said. "We have to keep moving. If he contacts us, then we will return."

Mace nodded in agreement. "We have to go."

"Turn around and set co-ordinates for Kashyyyk," Grievous said.

"Right away General," The droid said.

* * *

Luminara Unduli and Yoda waited outside the small shuttle they had come down in; just in case of an emergency like this. They were now waiting for Master Quinlan Vos to come to them; as they had contacted him. The two Wookies Chewbacca and Tarful waited with the two Jedi.

"Master Yoda, Master Unduli," Said a deep male voice.

The two Jedi looked at the source of the voice and saw Quinlan appear from inside the jungle.

"Ah, we've been waiting for you," Luminara Unduli said.

"Let's get going," Luminara said.

"Yes, what's the plan Master Yoda?" Quinlan Vos asked.

"Hard to say for now," Yoda said. "Goodbye Tarful, Chewbacca."

Both Wookies growled and waved goodbye as the three Jedi climbed onboard the shuttle.

The Two Wookies watched as the shuttle lifted off the ground, and flew into space.

Quinlan Vos and Luminara piloted the small shuttle, while Yoda was sat in the passenger seat in the Cockpit cabin.

"Where do we go next?" Quinlan Vos asked as he pulled up the data readings on one of the screens showing the layout. The map showed two Venator Class Star Destroyers on the other side of the planet.

"Wait we do," Yoda answered.

"Wait for what?" Quinlan asked curiously.

"Help," Yoda answered simply.

The three Jedi sat in the cockpit of the small shuttle in orbit over Kashyyyk. They waited patiently, for the supposed help that was on its way. Vos continued to stare at the data layout; he watched as the two Venators left the planet's orbit and left the map altogether.

"Good news, the Republic ships have left." Vos said.

"Hmm." Yoda said.

Suddenly the alarms went off around the small ship.

"A cruiser has just come out of hyperspace," Vos reported. "By the readout, it is a Trade Federation Cruiser—how odd, I sense Jedi onboard. I sense the presence of Shaak Ti onboard."

"What!? She has been captured?" Luminara asked, trying to stretch out with the Force.

"No," Yoda answered. "Contact the cruiser, you must."

* * *

"There is only a small shuttle in orbit over Kashyyyk, no republic cruisers and only wreckage from destroyed ships floating around the planet." The battle droid said. "General we are receiving a message from that small shuttle."

"Answer it," Grievous said, looking up at the holoprojector in front of the captain's station.

A hologram of Master Yoda appeared.

"Master Yoda," Shaak Ti said smiling. "It's so good to see you alive."

"Come we will, fly into the hangar bay, we will." Yoda said. "Good to see you alive too, it is." Then the transmission went.

"Move closer to the shuttle to speed this process up," Grievous ordered. The distance between the shuttle and cruiser reduced quickly. Soon enough the Shuttle flew into the hangar bay of the _New Hope_.

Yoda, Luminara and Quinlan Vos came onto the bridge of the _New Hope_.

"Master Yoda, Master Vos, and Master Unduli," Mace Windu greeted. "It is good to see you all alive and well."  
"Sorry to break up the reunion," Grievous said. "We must head to Felucia to rescue—"

"Barriss Offee and Aayla Secura," Shaak Ti finished.

"Set co-ordinates for Felucia," Grievous ordered the captain.

"I just have sir," The droid reported.

The _New Hope_ entered lightspeed, once again.

* * *

Darth Vader continued to wipe out all the remaining Jedi in the Jedi temple. Vader stabbed his lightsaber through the chest of the defeated Valeen Shoxol; the Aleena Jedi Knight. He and the Clones continued to search for Mace Windu and Shaak Ti in the Temple. Vader headed back to the temple entrance. He took out his personal Commlink to contact Lord Sidious. His hologram appeared on the small personal device.

"Lord Vader," Sidious greeted.

"I have taken the Jedi temple as ours," Vader informed him. "But there were no younglings here, and only a handful of Jedi trainees. We haven't found Mace Windu either."

Sidious frowned. "He may have already fled the planet and taken some of the younglings with him. He is no threat alone with a bunch of kids. Head to Mustafar and destroy the Separatist Council."

"Yes Master," Vader replied. He ended the transmission.

* * *

Vader left the Clones to secure the Jedi Temple, and retrieve any holocrons the Jedi had left behind. Before he left for Mustafar, he made his way back to his apartment on Coruscant to see his secret wife. He came through the front door of the apartment, Padme came rushing to him and embraced him.

"Ani, what's happening?" Padme asked, with tears pouring down her face and in her eyes.

Vader could see C3-PO and R2-D2 over her shoulder; both of them staring out of the window—looking into the city.

"What do you mean?" Vader asked.

"There's smoke coming from the temple," Padme said.

"The Jedi have betrayed the Chancellor, they've gone against the New Republic," Vader told her. "Mace Windu tried to arrest the Chancellor, and tried to kill me too."

"W-what!?" Padme said stepping back, looking at his mechanic legs. "Mace Windu didn't do that to you, did he?"

"I'm afraid so," Vader answered honestly. "I have been given a special mission to go to Mustafar and end this war for good. The Separatists have gathered there. I will be going alone in my personal Jedi Starfighter."

"It's still here," Padme sobbed.

"I will be back soon," Vader said. Vader headed out of the apartment and made his way to the small Jedi Starfighter that was parked on the landing pad. Vader climbed into the Jedi Starfighter, powered up the engines and took off. He soared up into Coruscant's sky and beyond.

* * *

Aayla Secura and Barriss Offee had moved around the surface of Felucia; thankfully they had not met any squads of Clones. They had now arrived at a river, one of the few that went across the surface of Felucia.

"If help is coming, we need to stay somewhere out in the open," Barriss Offee said, thinking aloud.

"Right," Aayla Secura agreed with her. "There have not been any more squads of clones, but there was supposed to be reinforcements arriving here to back us up."

"Let's not worry about that now." Barriss said, trying not to get distracted by idle thoughts.

* * *

The _New Hope_ came out of lightspeed once more in Felucia's system. The Battle droid looked at the tactical layout of the planet and system. Once again there was only wreckage, and no republic or C.I.S ships that were in working condition.

"Again, the Republic fleet have left the planet." Grievous reported, and for them it was positive news.

"The Chancellor must have recalled the fleet and army back to Coruscant." K'Kruhk said.

"Sense the two Jedi down on the surface, I do," Yoda said. Grievous looked down at the small Jedi that was sat down on the floor in a cross-legged position.

"Can you contact them?" Grievous asked.

"Yes," Mace Windu said as he activated his commlink again. Several seconds had passed and he had got a response. Barriss Offee appeared as a hologram.

"Master Windu!" Barriss Offee greeted with a smile.

"We are up in orbit; we will send you a shuttle down to the surface," Mace Windu said.

"Yes," Barriss replied.

"Over and out." Mace said. He ended the message.

"Sir, we have scanned the surface and found two Republic outposts." The Battle droid captain informed him.

"Have you tracked the position of the Jedi?" Grievous asked.

"Yes," The battle droid replied.

"I will go and rescue them," Grievous said.  
"I will go with you then," Master Vos said.

The two of them made their way off the bridge and to the hangar bay. They hurried down the corridors, meeting several Jedi sitting on the floor in the corridors and then went down the elevator. They soon came into the hangar bay climbed into one of the shuttle's that was parked here. Grievous, sat in the pilot's chair as it were, powered up the engines, and then he lifted it off the ground with the controls, making it hover in the air and eventually flew out of the cruiser's hangar bays. They flew towards the large green planet of Felucia.

"What do you think is down there?" Quinlan Vos asked, trying to cut the silence. "Ive never been to this planet before, to be honest."

"Two Jedi and two Republic outposts," Grievous answered. "Probably wildlife, different to the wildlife found on Kalee." The two of them flew the shuttle down into Felucia's atmosphere; they had tracked the location of the two Jedi as they had managed to track the point where the Jedi had received the message from Mace Windu. As they flew over the surface, they passed over a republic outpost.

"Their not shooting us down," Quinlan Vos said.

"Indeed," Grievous said simply. Through the window he could see the river coming into view, and saw two people stood by the river.

"That's them," Quinlan Vos pointed out.

Grievous landed the shuttle near the two Jedi, and he opened the ramp and came on board. As they came onboard they stared in horror as they saw General Grievous at the controls. But Quinlan Vos was sat in the co-pilot's seat.

"Have we missed something?" Barriss Offee said as she sat down in the passenger seat.

"We have made an alliance with the Separatists," Quinlan Vos said.

"We've definitely missed something," Aayla Secura piped up.

"All will be explained when we return to the _New Hope_." Grievous said.

"The what?" Barriss asked.

"Trade Federation Cruiser." Grievous answered as he took the shuttle off into the air and they flew into space; returning to the Trade Federation Cruiser.

Grievous piloted the shuttle back into the hangar bay of the _New Hope_ and landed down near one of the dropships. Grievous opened the exit ramp and the four of them came off the shuttle.

"First time I've ever been on one of these," Aayla remarked, as she looked at the battle droids who were in the hangar bay doing maintenance to the droid star fighters and the dropships.

"Same here," Barriss replied. She looked at Grievous. "Where are we heading to?"

"Nar Shaddaa," Grievous answered. "I must return to the bridge."

Grievous and Quinlan Vos left the hangar bay with the two younger Jedi following closely behind. Further up the corridor, Aayla and Barriss saw Bultar Swan, Roan Shryne and Olee Starstone sat in the corridor. They rushed over to greet them as Grievous and Quinlan Vos entered the elevator and went up to the top level to the bridge.

"Hey," Aayla greeted them.

"Hi Aayla, Barriss," Bultar Swan smiled at them both. "Well we could be here for a while; you both may as well take a seat."

"Are they both alright?" Shaak Ti asked.

"Yes, they're fine," Quinlan Vos said. "Go see them on the lower deck if you must."

"I will," Shaak Ti said. She walked past him, and walked off the bridge.

"We're setting course for Nar Shaddaa at last," Grievous said.

"Finally." The droid mumbled as he put in the co-ordinates.

* * *

Vader came out of hyperspace in his Jedi starfighter. He could see the large fiery red planet of Mustafar through his cockpit window. Vader flew the starfighter down into Mustafar's atmosphere. He flew over the surface until he saw a huge bunker on the side of a mountain. Vader landed the starfighter on the landing pad outside of the bunker, and he climbed out of the cockpit. He put his hood up and walked to the bunker's entrance. Vader opened the outer door with his hand using the Force. Vader stepped into the corridor of the bunker, and walked down it towards the next set of doors.

* * *

Padme, Mon Mothma and Bail Organa were sat on one Repulsorpod in the Grand Convocation Chamber in the Senate Building, listening to Palpatine on the centre podium.

"The Clone Wars has finished, the Separatist leaders will be arrested. The Jedi rebellion has been thwarted. The attempt on my life has left me permanently scarred and deformed. But my resolve has never been stronger! In order to ensure the security and continuing stability, the Republic will be reorganized into the first Galactic Empire! For a safe and secure, society." Palpatine roared, raising his hands into the air, as everyone gave him a standing ovation of cheers and thunderous clapping that went around the room.

"I don't believe it," Bail Organa muttered. "He's actually turned the Republic into an Empire." Bail said shaking his head.

* * *

Vader came into the main conference room of the Separatist bunker. He didn't see any of the separatist leaders, nor sense anyone else here. He saw a datapad lying on the table; he went over to pick it up. It had a single message on it.

'_Sorry we couldn't be here for you to kill us all, Anakin. I hope we will never have to meet each other again as friends or enemies.' _

_Viceroy Nute Gunray _

Vader chucked the datapad against the wall out of anger. "They are not here. Those good for nothing, greedy, pathetic Neimoidians." _Where could they have possibly gone?_ He thought.

Vader took out his commlink and contacted Lord Sidious. Palpatine appeared as a hologram.

"Is it done Lord Vader?" Palpatine asked.

"No, the Separatists are not here on Mustafar," Vader told his master.

"W-what! How can this be, I told Grievous to send them to the Mustafar system!" Palpatine roared. "They could be anywhere. We can put a large bounty on the Separatist Leaders, and send out bounty hunters to locate them."

"I want to search for them," Vader said.

"You can, start on Gunray's homeworld Neimoidia," Palpatine said. "A place he would return to in danger."

"Yes." Vader agreed.

"Send transmission to all the droid ships to shut down," Palpatine said.

"Very good." Vader replied.

"The war is over. The Republic is now the Galactic Empire, our Empire. The Separatists will be no more of a threat, dead or alive." Palpatine informed him.

"I shall head out to Neimoidia, my master." Vader said.

Palpatine nodded and then ended the transmission.


	4. New Laws of the Empire

Chapter 4 New Laws of the Empire

Padme, Mon Mothma, Bail Organa and now Garm Bel Iblis returned to Padme's apartment.

"What is going on?" C3-PO demanded as Padme came through the front door. R2 beeped and booped after C3-PO had spoken.

"The Galactic Republic no longer exists," Padme said with tears coming down her face.

"It is now, the Galactic Empire," Bail Organa explained it to the two droids.

"We had just heard about the reports about the Jedi being labelled traitors to the new born Empire, and that they had tried to spur on a rebellion, thanks to the hacking into the network by R2." C3-PO glanced over at R2, who had his datajack in one of the wall computers in the corner of their room. "The Clones attacked the Jedi Temple, according to the records none survived."

"Resourceful little astromech droid," Garm Bel Iblis said, looking at the astromech droid, who responded with several friendly beeps.

"Do you think any Jedi off-world managed to escape?" Bail Organa asked.

"We can't rely on them, we don't know where they are," Mon Mothma said. "We can't stand up to the Emperor, yet. We need to rally support."

"I agree," Garm Bel Iblis said. "We will need to return to our homeworlds, and try to gather support from them. If any Jedi have survived, we will need their help."

"Agreed," Bail Organa nodded. "We can leave Coruscant on my Corvette, the _Tantive IV_."

"I'll return to Naboo then." Padme said. "R2 and C3-PO are you coming?"

"Yes, of course," C3-PO replied, and R2 agreed with the protocol droid, with a series of beeps.

* * *

Palpatine, the Ruler of the newly born Galactic Empire, was sat at his desk in his holding office beneath the Grand Convocation Chamber—the senate Rotunda. He was already preparing the new rules and laws of his Sith Empire, he wrote them down on his datapad. He will then take it to the Imperial Senate, who will agree to the new laws passed.

_Decree one_; _All beings that are conscripted into the Military service, are required to stay in service as long as the Empire wished it. _

_Decree two; Slavery to non-human sentient beings is acceptable, of all other races, and can be moved around in ships or placed in camps and bases. _

_Decree three; Any local government that has an active military force, is required to join the Imperial Navy, as a cohesive, united army that will stand against all enemies that will face our Galactic Empire._

_Decree four; Anyone who is found guilty of suspicious behaviour of trying to organise movements against the Empire, will be considered treason and will be arrested and thrown in jail without trial and may susceptible to an unlimited fine._

_Decree five; Using Force Abilities is not acceptable as this is the New Order that revolves around physical arms, and magic is a thing of the past, and may susceptible to an unlimited fine from the Galactic Empire._

Palpatine thought these decrees will soon become law, which they will. Palpatine would propose these laws to the Imperial Senate tomorrow. _Ah, of course, I'll have to put a bounty out for those Renegade Jedi like Mace Windu, and the fugitive Separatists or at least give a reward to each one that is located,_ Palpatine decided.

* * *

The _New Hope_ arrived at the large, very populated moon of Nar Shaddaa that was a moon of Nal Hutta. Grievous stared out of the viewport, at the number of ships entering and leaving the small planet. There were ships moving from and to Nal Hutta to Nar Shaddaa. Grievous said into the intercom—so that everyone on the ship could hear, 'We have arrived at our destination, Nar Shaddaa.'

"So who are we meeting here exactly?" Quinlan Vos asked.

"The other Separatist Leaders of course," Grievous replied. "We are safe here from the Empire, as long as they don't know of our existence—or we could be in for a very short stay."  
"I don't think they could have found us." Mace Windu said.

"Unlikely it is, know how many have survived," Yoda said, agreeing.

"One shuttle sir is hailing us that is in orbit over Nar Shaddaa." The battle droid captain informed him.

"Answer it," Grievous ordered.

The droid answered it, and as they suspected it was Viceroy Nute Gunray; who appeared as a hologram.

"Viceroy," Grievous greeted.

"Ah, General, you rescued the Jedi?" Nute Gunray asked.

"Yes, hundreds," Grievous answered, firmly.

"Good, I suppose," Gunray said. "We have been meeting with some of Cad Bane's associates. He is willing to offer us some protection and shelter but he requests an audience with you General, since you are the leader of the Separatists."

"We aren't calling ourselves that anymore," Grievous said, shaking his head. "We have to think of a new name for ourselves."

"Indeed," Nute Gunray said. "He is called Zedo the Hutt, who is the main crimelord in these parts."

"Good." Grievous said. "Come onboard the cruiser, there is still more than enough room onboard. Over and out." Grievous ended the transmission.

"You can't go alone to see this Hutt," Mace Windu said.

"Of course. You, Cad Bane can come with me for this audience with Zedo the Hutt." General Grievous told him.

"Yes, I will speak on behalf of the Jedi Order." Mace Windu said.

"Agree, I do," Yoda nodded.

They waited until Nute Gunray and the other leaders such as Poggle the Lesser, Cad Bane, Shu Mai, San Hill, Wat Tambor and Passel Argente.

"When is this meeting with Zedo?" Grievous asked.

"We arranged it for tomorrow morning," Cad Bane informed him.

"Good," Grievous said. "We have time to take a look around the city then. I've never visited this city before. Anybody want to come?"

"Sure," Quinlan Vos replied.

"Nah, I've seen enough of this treacherous place, over the past few days," Nute Gunray said, as he and the others walked off the bridge.  
"Where are you going?" Grievous asked.

"The observation deck," Shu Mai answered.

"Keep in contact at all times," Grievous said.

"We will," Mace Windu said.

"Where is Master Yoda?" Grievous asked.

"He has gone to do some meditation." Mace Windu said.

"Right," Grievous said. Grievous and Quinlan Vos walked off the bridge.

The other Separatist Leaders arrived on the observation deck that had many tables and chairs; funnily enough there were some Jedi already using them. But there was a table that was spare. All of them sat down warily at the table.

"We should have told him to get some food to bring on board," Shu Mai complained as she sat down. She looked over at the large window that gave them an impressive view of the city on the moon.

"We will tell him," Nute Gunray said, nodding in agreement.

"It is going to be rather weird working with the Jedi," San Hill muttered quietly, not to gain attention from the Jedi on the other tables.

"I'm sure we will come around it." Gunray spoke up. "But we all can't stay on here forever. We have to find a permanent home of some sort."

"Away from the Emperor, and anyone else who wants us dead." San Hill said, grimly.

On their way to the hangar bay, Grievous found Ahsoka Tano sitting on the floor in the corridor.

"Ahsoka," Grievous said.

"What do you want?" Ahsoka asked.

"You want to come down with us to the surface?" Quinlan Vos asked.

"Urm, okay," Ahsoka decided, as she stood up.

The three of them climbed onboard the _Lapiz Cutter_, the shuttle that the Viceroy and the others had come in.

"Anyone else want to fly for a change?" Grievous offered.

"Sure I will," Ahsoka Tano said with enthusiasm. Ahsoka sat in the pilot seat, with Quinlan Vos in the co-pilot seat and this time Grievous sat in one of the passenger seats just behind the two of them. Ahsoka flicked on the ignition switch; the engines roared to life. Ahsoka pushed down on the throttle; making the shuttle lift off the ground and up into the air.

* * *

Padme, Bail Organa, Mon Mothma and Garm Bel Iblis were stood in the communications room on the _Tantive IV _along with R2 and C3-PO. They were watching the holonet broadcasting of Palpatine's speech in the Senate Building. He had just passed his first five decrees for the New Galactic Empire.

"For a securer society, I will place a bounty for each Jedi that is caught for committing heresy, and you will report this to your imperial regional governor and we will deal with them." Palpatine said. "We also believe that there are still some lingering members of the Separatists, who have caused destruction to countless worlds and still could be seen as dangerous to the Empire, as well as your own lives and friends around you. For each Separatist or Jedi reported and arrested will grant you a definite reward between 50,000 and 100,000 credits."

Bail Organa turned off the broadcasting as he couldn't stand to hear any more of it.

"I won't listen to anymore of it," Bail Organa said, shaking his head in outright disgust.

"We should head to Corellia first, and I will try to get volunteers to join our new army," Garm Bel Iblis said. "If there are any renegade Separatists like Grievous, I wonder if he would be willing to join us."

"Grievous..." Mon Mothma said, as she considered. "I have not the faintest idea where he could be."

"Well if we come across him," Bail said. "Then he may be willing to join us, if he has indeed been betrayed by the Emperor."

* * *

Grievous watched as Ahsoka landed the _Lapiz Cutter_ in the designated hangar bay in one of the numerous spaceports on Nar Shaddaa.

"Time to go," Ahsoka said authoratively as she pulled on the lever that bought the exit ramp down.

"Right away, Captain," Quinlan Vos remarked, giving her a brief smile.

The three of them stood up and came off the ship, with Grievous locking it up with a special remote control.

"Let's head out," Grievous said, looking over at Ahsoka and then Quinlan Vos; who had both momentarily stopped walking. "What's the matter?"

"There's a disturbance in the Force," Ahsoka said. "It doesn't matter, let's keep moving."

"Right," Grievous nodding, not really understanding the concept of the Fore.

They saw two Trandoshans stepping into the hangar bay from the corridor they could see up ahead. The two Trandoshans were armed with blasters.

"This might have been the trouble you sensed," Grievous said quietly to the two Jedi, while not taking an eye off his opponents.

"Ah, Jedi," One of the Trandoshans spoke, as they approached them. They drew their weapons and aimed them at the Jedi. "Come with us."

"You are mistaken," Grievous said. He leapt forwards, the Trandoshans fired at Grievous, but it didn't do any or little damage what so ever. Grievous grabbed hold of one of the Trandoshan bounty hunters, while the other jumped to the side; missing the hands of Grievous. Grievous twisted the neck of the Trandoshan and threw him against the wall, while Ahsoka ignited her green lightsaber as the second Trandoshan stood up.

"Who sent you?" Ahsoka demanded, as she stepped towards him.

"Nobody," The Trandoshan said. He aimed and fired at Ahsoka, but she blocked each shot with her lightsaber. Grievous rushed towards him, and brought him into a terrible body lock; he couldn't move his hands as the General's steel hands were clamped tight around them. Ahsoka stepped closer to him, and she took his blaster from him; now he was an unarmed.

Grievous released the Trandoshan, and he fell to the floor.

"Just kill me," The Trandoshan said.

"No," Quinlan Vos declined.

The Trandoshan got to his feet.

"Go away," Grievous said. The Trandoshan indeed followed his advice, and ran past Grievous and out into the corridor and disappeared from sight.

"How odd." Ahsoka said.

Grievous took out his commlink, and pressed several buttons. Mace Windu appeared as a hologram on the commlink. "Master Windu. You and Master Yoda are in charge of the _New Hope_ while I'm gone; I forgot to mention it before I left. As Nute Gunray is incompetent when it comes to making certain life decisions. We have already met a nice welcome of two Trandoshans Bounty Hunters attacking us."

"No one hurt?" Mace Windu asked.

"Only one of the bounty hunters." Grievous answered. "We shall contact you if anything else arises, and likewise Jedi Master."

"Yes, of course General." Mace Windu said.

"Good day," Grievous then ended the transmission. He placed his commlink into his pocket of his cloak.

"Alright, let's take a look around the city then." Ahsoka said.

The three of them soon came into the city of Nar Shaddaa. It looked like Coruscant, with many skyscrapers, hundreds of aliens, droids and humans walking through the city; shopping, and eating out in cafe's etc.

"Well here we are, Nar Shaddaa," Quinlan Vos said. "I've never been here before."

"Same here," Ahsoka said.

"That makes three of us then," Grievous remarked.

"Keep on guard," Quinlan Vos said as they begun walking through the city.

They saw a cue of aliens lining up outside a building. As they passed, they saw that it was a club of some sort called the 'Djek Djek So.' It had fancy neon signs above the door and written in different alien languages.

"Looks like an exciting place," Grievous commented. He noticed there were two guards at the door and they were Gammoreans, with one of them holding a large axe and there was a Bith with a datacard of some sort.

"Let's keep moving," Quinlan Vos said as he noticed that two more guards had come outside of the building. Grievous kept moving until a Twi'lek ran up to him and blocked his path.

"You're General Grievous!" The Twi'lek exclaimed.

"Keep it quiet," Quinlan Vos warned him, before Grievous responded.

"I will not be quiet." The Twi'lek shot back. "You invaded my homeworld, Ryloth, you and your Separatist armies. You destroyed my home; I had to leave my family."

"You coward," Grievous said stepping towards him. "And anyway I don't remember invading Ryloth."

"I swore I'd try to get revenge on the person who was behind the attack." The Twi'lek said, his anger continuing to grow. "I know you were the leader of the Separatists."

Grievous launched his right hand forwards, and grabbing onto the Twi'leks shoulder, bringing him even closer to the General.

"General," Quinlan Vos said, warning the General. "We don't want any more unnecessary attention."

"I won't hurt him this time." Grievous said, looking over at the Jedi Master. "I warn you to leave now. Don't step into my way again or it'll be the last. I honestly don't remember attacking your homeworld." Grievous released the Twi'lek.

"Alright then," The Twi'lek said. "I'll be on my way." The Twi'lek walked around the three of them and left them alone.

"Oh boy," Ahsoka said. "Annoying Twi'lek."

"He seemed pretty upset," Quinlan Vos said.

"That's his problem," Grievous said.

* * *

The Jedi starfighter came out of lightspeed as it entered the Neimoidian system. Vader could see several Trade Federation Cruisers in orbit over the planet but as Vader scanned them he found no life forms on board and no power; they were dead ships in orbit drifting around the planet until someone would turn them into scrap for other resources. _This is no longer a Jedi Starfighter—that is a symbol of the past, I'll call it the Sith Starfighter from now on,_ Vader thought to himself. Vader flew the Sith Starfighter down into the atmosphere of Neimoidia.

He made his way to the capital city, where the mayor or governor would be. Vader had thankfully been cleared to land in the spaceport. Vader docked in one of the hanger bays and he climbed out of the Sith Starfighter, and pulled his hood over his head; to try to avoid detection from people who may attempt to follow him or spy on him.

* * *

Palpatine was sat once again behind his desk in his holding office in the Senate Building. He was glad that his first five decrees as Emperor had been made laws, but now he was thinking of further decrees to help expand his Empire to every galaxy and sector of the known and unknown galaxy. He had his datapad once again lying in front of him on the desk.

_Decree six; Citizens will pay their taxes to their regional or planetary governor,_

_Decree seven; People who are found guilty of not paying their taxes, will be forced to work in Labour camps across the Galactic Empire._

_Decree eight; There will be no political parties, and anyone who has been caught joining or supporting one will be sent to labour camps or various other camps to be dealt with as there should not be divisions in the Galactic Empire as everyone should be glorifying in the success of the Galactic Empire._

Palpatine also noted the importance in having a large army and imperial navy; he decided he would also add later a specific Military doctrine to his laws.

* * *

Vader made his way to the governors building in Koto-Si, one of the main cities on Neimoidia. Vader saw there were Neimoidian Guards standing at the doors of the governors building, and he walked over to them. He raised both of his hands and Force lifted them both off the ground and Force choked them. The Sith lord then tossed both warriors against the wall and knocked them out. Vader opened the front doors using the Force and marched inside. He felt the presence of the Neimoidians inside the building, through the Force. Vader marched through the entrance, and walked down the corridor; to the source of the life presences. The corridor turned off to the right, Vader saw two more Neimoidian warriors stood guarding a door at the end of the corridor. The two warriors instantly saw Vader as he came around the corner. They both drew out their large spear weapons and ran at the Sith Lord.

* * *

K'Kruhk was still stood on the bridge of the _New Hope_ with Mace Windu, and the numerous battle droids that were standing by at their stations.

"Jedi Master," The Battle droid captain said.

"Yes?" Mace Windu asked, turning to look at the battle droid.

"The map shows a small fleet of ships has just dropped out of lightspeed, they are of military design," The Battle droid captain reported. "The readout shows they have weapons, and most of them are medium sized cruisers but one is a dreadnought."

"Mercenaries," K'Kruhk said. "Not the Empire."

"The fleet is heading towards us," The battle droid said.

"Or more likely Nar Shaddaa itself." Mace Windu suggested.

"The Dreadnought is hailing us," The battle droid said.

"We shouldn't answer it." K'Kruhk said.

"We will just for precaution," Mace Windu said.

The battle droid followed Mace's words and answered it. An Aqualish appeared on screen this time, dressed in military uniform.

"We overpower you," The Aqualish said in basic. "Surrender your ship, and live or prepare to die."

"Who are you to make demands like that?" Mace Windu asked.

"We are taking your ship one way or another," The Aqualish said firmly. Then the screen went blank—he must've ended the conversation.

"The fleet are continuing to advance towards us." The battle droid captain said.

"We're not going to listen to his demands are we?" K'Kruhk asked, looking at Mace Windu.

"Of course not," Mace Windu said. "Turn on the intercom." He said to the battle droid as he walked over to the device to speak into. "Everybody, prepare for battle as things might get worse. A fleet has dropped out of hyperspace and has ordered us to surrender the ship over. But we are obviously not going to listen to their demands."

"We obviously don't have any starfighters that we could pilot," K'Kruhk said, thinking about tactics.

"Turn the _Home One_ around to face the incoming fleet," Mace Windu said.

"Yes Jedi Master," The battle droid captain said.

"We do have droid starfighters, dropships and a few shuttles," Mace Windu said.

"We need to keep the dropships and shuttles we have left intact." K'Kruhk spoke up.

Mace Windu nodded. Then walked over to the intercom device. "Do we have any decent pilots onboard?" Mace Windu spoke into the intercom. "If you are a good pilot, come to the bridge immediately, as we are going to discuss our military tactics." Then the droid captain turned off the intercom. Mace Windu thought about the best pilots in the Jedi Order such as Plo Koon, Anakin Skywalker, Agen Kolar, Pablo-Jill and Ahsoka Tano. None of them were here, apart from Ahsoka who was down on Nar Shaddaa for the time being, the rest were dead, apart from Anakin maybe—but he was no longer a Jedi. Mace Windu was also aware of General Grievous piloting skills, but again he was down in the city.

"There aren't many outstanding pilots left," K'Kruhk said. "But we are Jedi. We can all be good pilots." The Wiphid Jedi Master said.

After a few silent moments, Bultar Swan and Coleman Kcaj came onto the bridge.

"We will fight," Bultar Swan said.

"We can't go all out against this fleet, but we need you to fly a dangerous mission to the dreadnought in a dropship. We want you to try a daring mission to board the dreadnought to take it over and use it to attack the other ships." Mace Windu said.

"Oh my goodness!" Swan exclaimed.

"We can do it," Kcaj said, to reassure her.

"We will inform General Grievous of our plans." Mace Windu took out his commlink.

"For the mission to be successful, we will need more Jedi to go with you. I will come with you." K'Kruhk said.

Grievous, Quinlan Vos and Ahsoka were still making their way through the city of Nar Shaddaa. They were walking down a street way, but they noticed there were less people down this street. On this road there were more clubs and bars, as well as more litter; it was almost like an alleyway. Grievous heard his commlink beeping, and he reactively took it out of his cloak pocket and answered it. Mace Windu appeared as a hologram.

All three of them stopped walking as the two Jedi once again sensed a disturbance in the Force.

"General Grievous, we are about to be under attack by a small fleet of ships led by an Aqualish general on a dreadnought." Mace Windu informed him as a hologram.

"Oh dear," Quinlan Vos said as he ignited his lightsaber; Ahsoka followed suite.

"What was that?" Mace Windu asked.

"A slight problem of our own," Grievous said. "The space battle is in your hands for now."

Grievous turned off the commlink, and placed it in his cloak. Four Trandoshan bounty hunters, several armed Rodians and two Bith had come out one of the nearby buildings and blocked their path.

"Hands up Jedi!" The same Trandoshan—who had escaped had returned with a larger following. "This time you won't defeat us so easily."

"Your overconfidence is your weakness," Quinlan Vos said.

"You don't even know who you are dealing with? Do you?" The Trandoshan asked.

"No, why should we know bounty hunters like you?" Grievous answered it, with a question.

"I am Karnith, and we are the Black Sun," The Trandoshan introduced himself. "Surrender and you won't be harmed—too much. There's a good pricey reward on you Jedi for the Emperor."

"Two of us won't get you much," Quinlan Vos said. "And who's put the bounty on us?"

"No but your ship will, when you have surrendered it." Karnith said, with a huge smile. "And for your information it's the Emperor, he announced it only a few hours ago."

"You're attacking my ship!" Grievous said as he took out four lightsabers and split his arms into four and ignited them with fury; one red, two green and one blue.

"You fools, still think you can take us on?" Karnith mocked. "Fire!" The aliens fired at the Jedi and General Grievous. The three of them spun their lightsabers around in the air in front of them to block and parry the lasers. Quinlan Vos saw one of the Rodians activate and launch a thermal detonator in the air towards them with his right hand. Quinlan Vos and Ahsoka dived out of the way while Grievous launched forwards; while spinning his lightsabers parrying a large amount of lasers. The two Jedi dived into a forward roll, and only just escaped the explosion of the thermal detonator. General Grievous came rushing towards the bounty hunters; most of them jumping out of the way.

"Die. Die. Die!" Karnith roared as he unclipped his virosword from his waist and he personally ran towards the Jedi. Quinlan Vos and Ahsoka jumped to their feet, reigniting their lightsabers. Ahsoka force jumped into the air, flying towards Karnith.

"Ahsoka!" Quinlan Vos exclaimed loudly.

Ahsoka landed on the ground a few meters in front of Karnith's path.

"Die, little girl," Karnith swung his sword towards her; Ahsoka intercepted it with her green lightsaber, and surprisingly the sword didn't break when it made contact with the lightsaber.

"You will die," Karnith said. He swung his sword around in an arc; aiming for Ahsoka. Ahsoka moved her lightsaber to parry the strike, and once again the lightsaber clashed against the virosword.

K'Kruhk, Coleman Kcaj, Bultar Swan and now Harrdin—a female Twi'lek, were sat in the cockpit cabin of the dropship in the hangar bay of the _New Hope_. K'Kruhk and Coleman Kcaj were sat at the controls with the two younger Jedi sat in the passenger seats just behind.

"Are we all ready to go?" Kcaj asked.

"I'm good to go," Bultar Swan spoke up.

"Same here," Harrdin said enthusiastically.

"Right let's go then," K'Kruhk said, as he saw through the cockpit more Vulture droid starfighters leaving the hangar bay. K'Kruhk turned on the engines of the dropship. K'Kruhk piloted the dropship outside and into space; turning around to face the dreadnought and its entourage ahead. They could see the Tri-fighters and vulture droids combating with the enemies own starfighters.

"Looks as though things could get a little bit heated," Bultar Swan commented, looking around K'Kruhk from her seat and out into space at the battle.


	5. Zedo the Hutt

Chapter 5 Zedo the Hutt 

Garm Bel Iblis watched the _Tantive IV_ head back into space after dropping him off on Corellia. He made his way through Coronet city, heading to the Corellian Embassy, where the Senators, diplomats and various other politicians were present. Along with the diplomats from the other worlds in the Corellian System—Selonia, Drall, Talus and Tralus, would be present at the Embassy. Garm came to the entrance of the Embassy, where there were five flags of the five worlds hanging down from the roof of the building. There were several Corellian security guards stood at the entrance doors.

"Name ID," One of the Security guards demanded as Garm approached them.

"Senator Garm Bel Iblis, Number 120XDE42," He recited as he always did. The Security guards knew it was him, but everyday they had to be certain to make sure he wasn't an imposter. Another one of the Security Guards placed a small portable scanner over him to make sure he wasn't carrying any weapons.

"You may pass through Senator Garm Bel Iblis," The security officer said firmly, as he stepped to the side. Garm Bel Iblis walked through to the entrance of the Embassy. Garm saw the reception desk at the entrance of the building, with a male Human, a protocol droid and two more Human security officers stood at the desk. He walked over to the desk.

"Good Morning, Senator Garm Bel Iblis," The Receptionist greeted him, in a friendly tone of voice.

"Hello Dwain," Garm greeted back.

"The Five Worlds ambassadors are waiting for you," Dwain informed him.

"Yes, of course," Garm said as he walked past the desk and down the hall.

Garm Bel Iblis came into the conference room. The Ambassadors of the Five Worlds were sat around the table, which included; a Selonian called D'vir that represents Selonia and had an interpreter as he couldn't speak basic, a Drall called Akkmal with his interpreter that represent Drall, Shina a female human that represents Talus, and Majidi a male human representative for Tralus and Okir a human ambassador for Corellia. Garm Bel Iblis sat at the table, taking one of the unused chairs.

"Senator Garm Bel Iblis, I'm glad you could make it," Majidi said.

"The Emperor is sending out some of his new imperial fleets to help secure trade lanes and start constructing his imperial academies. He's chosen Corellia as one of those centres." Okir informed him.

"I've not heard of this," Garm said frowning at Okir.

"Because he has only released these new laws only a few hours ago." Okir said.

"Ah," Garm said. "What other planets did he choose?"

"Carida, Corulag, and Fondor," Okir informed him.

Akkmal spoke to his interpreter in Drallish. Then his interpreter translated it in basic.

"If we are going to have any chance of fighting the Empire, we have to take arms now before it becomes any stronger." The Interpreter said.

"Exactly," Garm Bel Iblis said. "There are others who are willing to fight against the Empire, but how many we can't be certain."

"The Empire is already too strong," Shinra said, shaking her head in disgust. "They have already legalised slavery of other species. You can't be certain that there are other allies willing to fight against the Empire."

"I am certain," Garm replied.

"We haven't got the resources or the ability to take the Empire on in a Total War," Shinra said, frowning, and in an already defeated tone of voice.

"No, not yet," Garm said. "But we can still fight the Empire by using skirmishes, and ambush tactics, quick rapid attacks against Empire strongholds, and fleets."

* * *

Vader came storming through the office of the Neimoidian Governor's office after he had finished Force choking both of those pathetic guards that were outside. The Neimoidian governor was sat behind his desk, dressed in his expensive robes—like what the Viceroy used to wear.

"Who are you!?" The Neimoidian demanded, as Vader had come through the door.

"Where is Viceroy Nute Gunray?" Vader demanded, his eyes narrow, his face only portrayed the emotion of anger and rage.

"Who are you? What are you doing here?" The Neimoidian stood up to his feet, to appear more intimidating.

"Sit down," Vader responded. He wave his hand in the air, and sent him a Force push that made him fall back in his chair. "Where is Nute Gunray?" Vader repeated. Vader looked down at this weakling, he looked terrified.

"Nute Gunray," The Neimoidian said. "I have not seen him here for months, before the Separatists invaded Coruscant, was the last time I spoke to him."

"You lie." Vader said after a few seconds of thought, as he activated his blue lightsaber.

"I don't know where he is," The Neimoidian cried, not so aggressive as he had been a few moments earlier.

"Then you have outlived your usefulness." Vader said. Vader stabbed the lightsaber right through the chest of the pitiful creature. His body flopped to the floor. _No point staying here anymore,_ Vader thought to himself. Vader walked out of the office and back down the hallway, and eventually came back outside. He climbed into the Sith Starfighter, turned on the engines and flew up into space.

* * *

Ahsoka parried Karnith's sword once more, and this time as his sword came swing towards her head instead of parrying—she ducked by crouching down and swinging the lightsaber at Karnith's legs. Karnith tried to bring the virosword down on her—in a hacking motion but he wasn't quick enough; the lightsaber sliced through both of his ankles. Karnith's body fell to down to the ground slightly; he still held his weapon firmly in his right hand. Ahsoka came out of her crouch and stepped a foot backwards.

"How dare you do this to me?" Karnith cried. He jerked forwards; still trying to move towards Ahsoka but she raised the palm of her left hand and sent Karnith a Force push. His body tumbled over as some of his Rodian troops came over to help him up. The Rodians began dragging him across the ground. Ahsoka looked over at Grievous who was currently slicing and beheading two Trandoshan bounty hunters and Quinlan Vos was sparring with one of the Bith warriors. Ahsoka rushed over to Karnith and the Rodians, thankfully they had their backs to her; she took them by surprise. Ahsoka raised her left palm and Force pushed the two Rodians; sending the Rodians flying across the ground and landing in a heap. The Rodians had also released their grip of Karnith. Karnith looked over his shoulder at Ahsoka.

"Get away from me insolent, little girl!" Karnith shouted as Ahsoka walked over to him, Grievous also walked over to him.

"Not too strong now are we?" Grievous asked, mocking him slightly.

"Kill me then," Karnith said.

Ahsoka looked over at the Rodians, who were standing up and brushing themselves off. The two Rodians drew their weapons and began firing at General Grievous. Grievous spun all four of his lightsabers in the air around him; blocking all the lasers the two Rodians had to offer. The Rodians continued to fire at him until the lasers eventually shot back at their source; the two Rodians were killed by their own lasers that got deflected right back at them.

"You don't stand a chance against the black sun!" Karnith said as Quinlan Vos came over to join them after he had finished defeating both Bith fighters.

"We're not here to deal with the black sun," Quinlan Vos said.

"Then kill me now," Karnith said, sounding defeated. "I am of no use to the Black Sun anymore."

"So be it," Grievous said, and he stabbed all four of his lightsabers through Karnith's back; he let out a small scream and his body jerked and went flaccid—lifeless.

* * *

K'Kruhk and Kcaj flew the dropship as best as they could through the dogfight between the Droid starfighters and the enemy starfighters—which consisted of Z-95 Headhunters and Kihraxz light fighters. They were closing in on the dreadnought of the fleet.

Kcaj had scanned the layout of the dreadnought from the dropship, and the results appeared on the screen. "It looks as though the dreadnought has two hangar bays, one directly ahead and the second one on the other side of ship, further up." Kcaj said. "It doesn't have any shields protecting the hangar bay doors."

"Okay," K'Kruhk said, as the ion cannons from the dropship continued firing at the dropship. K'Kruhk continued to swerve, and roll to evade their ion lasers. K'Kruhk made the dropship begin to drop downwards—so they could enter the hangar bay. K'Kruhk evened out as he saw the entrance of the hangar bay at an acute angle—he only knew it was the entrance because he saw more Z-95 headhunters come out of it. The two Jedi Masters successfully piloted the dropship into the hangar bay, but were greeted by a welcome from a group of aliens. The aliens started firing at the dropship even before it landed.

"Nice, warm welcome," Harrdin remarked.

"Let's get this over with," Coleman Kcaj said after he had opened the exit ramp. The four Jedi took out their lightsabers, unclipping them from their belts. The four Jedi came out of the dropship and were greeted by a group of aliens armed with short swords, viroswords, and slug throwers. K'Kruhk Force pushed two of the nearest aliens—that were Bith's and sent flying into a set of crates next to the wall. The four Jedi came around the back of the dropship, where there were more alien mercenaries and bounty hunters waiting for them and droids.

"Great," Harrdin said sarcastically, as she looked at the IG-88 Assassin droids.

"Intruders!" One of the Trandoshans roared. "Kill them all!"

The four Jedi stood their ground as lasers came flashing towards them. K'Kruhk kept his eye on the IG-88 droid that was heavily armed with an array of different weapons. Coleman Kcaj leapt towards one of the Rodian mercenaries, and decapitated his armed hand, causing him to scream in pain. Kcaj force pushed him out of his way, and had to quickly move on to the next as the aliens were closing in on them fast. Bultar Swan disarmed a Weequay warrior, and sliced another Weequay in rapid succession as K'Kruhk engaged in a melee duel with a Bith mercenary. Harrdin force leapt and landed in front of the IG-88 assassin droid. IG-88 drew both of its weapons aiming for the Jedi, as Harrdin approached the droid; a huge flame came sweeping out of one of the weapons that took Harrdin by surprise. The flame caught Harrdin's cloak and set fire to it. K'Kruhk saw Harrdin was in trouble, he Force pushed the Bith away from him and he deflected several lasers that came at him from another Rodian mercenary.

During the time that Harrdin threw off his cloak, IG-88 fired a concussion grenade from his other weapon that landed on the ground in front of him. Harrdin raised his hand and force pushed the concussion grenade away from him and sent it back to the IG88 droid. The IG88 stepped closer to Harrdin as the concussion grenade came flying towards it. It detonated as it hit the chest of the droid; the droid exploded. K'Kruhk sighed in relief, after he had finished dealing with the last Rodian mercenary.

"Let's keep going then," Kcaj said.

"Indeed," K'Kruhk agreed.

The four Jedi came out of the hangar bay, and into a corridor. They looked up and down the long corridor; there were doors at either end and there was no one else here for the time being. They approached the door at the end of the corridor, heading towards the bridge. K'Kruhk sensed there were three beings on the other side of the door and something else—a droid. K'Kruhk kept his finger on the switch of his lightsaber. He looked over his shoulder and saw Harrdin stood behind him followed by Kcaj and then Bultar Swan at the rear. K'Kruhk opened the door with the Force, and stepped through the door igniting his lightsaber, and indeed was greeted by more aliens consisting of Trandoshans, Gammoreans, a Rodian and an IG-88 Assassin droid. K'Kruhk swung his lightsaber in the air in front of him, deflecting the incoming lasers. K'Kruhk moved down the corridor, deflecting the laser bolts; and he allowed the other Jedi to make their way down the corridor. K'Kruhk sliced the IG-88 droid across the metallic chest, cutting it in two before it had a chance to draw out its weapons.

* * *

Vader returned to Coruscant in his Sith Starfighter. Through the viewport he could see several Venator class star destroyers up in orbit over the planet. Vader flew down into Coruscant's atmosphere and headed to the Imperial Executive Building where the Emperor was in his office. After Vader had landed outside the building, came inside the building and headed into the Emperor's private chambers. Vader found Palpatine sat in his private chamber as he had expected.

"Ah Lord Vader," Palpatine greeted, as he turned in his seat to face him. "Construction on the Death Star is about to start on Despayre, very soon."

"Very good my Lord," Darth Vader said.

"It will become the ultimate symbol of fear, wealth and power for the new Empire," Palpatine continued.

"What do we do about the Separatist leaders?" Darth Vader asked.

"I have placed a bounty on their heads; every bounty hunter in the galaxy will be searching for them." Palpatine said. "The same for the Jedi."

Vader heard the commlink device next to Palpatine beep—it was built into his arm rest, someone was contacting Lord Sidious. Palpatine answered it and a Clone Commander appeared on the arm rest.

"Commander Bly," Palpatine said.

"Emperor, we have located several Jedi here on Kashyyyk, who are causing our squads here some difficulty." Commander Bly informed the Emperor.

"Deal with them," Palpatine said. "Report back in five days to report your progress. We will send a Venator Class Star Destroyer to Kashyyyk to reinforce the system."

"Yes, your Excellency," Clone Commander Bly said.

Palpatine cut the transformation.

"I will go and see Padme now," Vader informed him.

"As you wish," Palpatine said.

Vader turned and left Palpatine alone in his private chamber.

* * *

"The _Lapiz-Cutter_ is returning to the ship," The Battle droid captain informed them.

"How can you be certain?" Mace Windu asked the droid, turning to look at the droid.

"It is because of the transponder ID of the shuttle," The battle droid said. "The Sheathipede shuttle has landed in the hangar bay." The battle droid reported.

Mace Windu turned back to look out the bridge and saw the dreadnought coming towards the _New Hope_ to engage them on one side and another corvette to engage them on the other side.

"Things might start to get rough on board," Luminara Unduli's voice came over his shoulder.

Mace turned his head over his shoulder and saw Luminara standing there alongside a B1 battle droid.

"Yes, you could inform everyone on board," Mace Windu said to Luminara, as he turned to see the Dreadnought came alongside them. "Give the order to attack." He told the battle droid captain.

"Yes Jedi Master," The droid confirmed the order as he relayed to the other battle droids at the gun turrets.

"Ah, what have you gotten yourself into?" A voice asked, coming from General Grievous as he came onto the bridge along with Ahsoka Tano and Quinlan Vos. Mace and Luminara turned to look at the Cyborg.

"We're doing the best we can with what we've got," Luminara said.

"Agreed," Grievous said.

"We've sent a small squad of Jedi onboard the dreadnought to try to get an agreement with the leader," Mace told him.

"Good," Grievous said, nodding in agreement.

"Which Jedi?" Quinlan Vos asked.

"A squad of four Jedi led by K'Kruhk and Coleman Kcaj," Mace Windu answered just before the _New Hope_ shook violently from the turbolasers of the dreadnought.

"Those Jedi have to get off that ship," Grievous said. "We won't be able to hold out for much longer."

Kcaj and K'Kruhk brushed aside two Gammorean Guards that were stood at the door guarding—what they suspected was the bridge of the dreadnought. Kcaj opened the door by using the Force; the four jedi walked onto the bridge and K'Kruhk saw the Aqualish up at the front stood with two other alien officers. Other aliens and deck officers looked up at the Jedi questioningly, with some starting to draw their weapons, but stopped short as the dreadnought shook violently as turbolasers from the _New Hope_ smashed into the hull.

"Withdraw your ships," K'Kruhk said to the Aqualish, as he pointed his lightsaber towards him in the air, and the four Jedi circled him and the two other Bith aliens.

"You're no match for the black sun," The Aqualish said as he and the Bith turned to face them. "Kill them all." K'Kruhk and Kcaj using the Force summoned a Force Projection Bubble around them using nearly all their strength as lasers from the alien deck officers came flying in towards them. Harrdin tried to summon a Force bubble, but lasers overwhelmed her—too quickly even for a Jedi; she dropped to the floor with her lightsaber falling down beside her.

"No!" K'Kruhk roared as Bultar Swan decapitated one of the Bith officers. Bultar Swan then stepped towards the second Bith. The Bith fell to his knees.

"Sorry," Bultar Swan said and sliced him across the chest, killing him instantly; his body dropped to the floor. "I think its time we came to an agreement." She said to the Aqualish. Kcaj Force leapt towards one of the other deck officers and incapacitated him by slicing off his armed hand and sent him a strong Force Whirlwind sending him and several other remaining officers flying against the walls as K'Kruhk finished off the remaining officers on the other side of the bridge, using a multitude of force techniques such as Force Malacia causing some to become to ill physically to fight. K'Kruhk and Kcaj headed back over to Bultar Swan and the Aqualish at the front of the bridge.

"If you kill me, my fleet will continue to attack your puny ship," The Aqualish said.

"You won't live long enough to see your side win," Bultar Swan said threateningly. "Call off your ships, and don't return here again." She said pointing her lightsaber at his neck. "And you will allow us to leave this dreadnought alive." She raised her hand and used a Jedi mind trick on him.

"I will call off the ships and allow you to leave." The Aqualish said. He walked over to the ships main comm system on the deck and relayed the message to all the captains on the other ships. "We are leaving, now. Forget about the silly cruiser. Don't destroy it anymore. We will head home for now. Set your co-ordinates for Ord Mantell."

"We are free to leave," Bultar Swan said still using the Jedi mind trick on him.

"Yes, of course," The Aqualish said from the comlink system. "Any deck officers left onboard report to the bridge, as we are heading back to Ord Mantell."

Kcaj picked up Harrdin's lightsaber off the floor, and the two Masters began to head off the bridge until they realised Bultar Swan wasn't walking with them. The two Jedi turned around, and saw Bultar Swan stab her lightsaber right through the Aqualish's chest.

"No!" Both Kcaj and K'Kruhk shouted in protest as they saw Bultar Swan remove the lightsaber from the Aqualish and deactivated it as his body collapsed to the floor. The two Jedi masters sensed several aliens making their way to the bridge. "We have to leave now."

Bultar Swan walked over to them.

"You didn't have to kill him," K'Kruhk said.

"I did what I thought was best," Bultar Swan said.

"We'll discuss this later," K'Kruhk decided.

The three Jedi came off the bridge as several aliens dressed in uniform came towards them from down the corridor.

"What's going on?" A Bith demanded.

"Your leader is in need of medical attention," K'Kruhk said.

"You're the intruders," The Bith said.

"You've got other problems to sort out," Kcaj said, with the aid of a Force mind trick.

The aliens allowed the three Jedi to pass them, and the Jedi as quickly as they could back to the dropship in the hangar bay.

* * *

Vader arrived outside his and Padme's apartment, even from outside; he couldn't sense anyone inside. Vader opened the front door and stepped inside through the doorway.  
"Padme!" Vader called out even though he knew there wouldn't be a response. "Artoo, C3-PO!" He shouted out as he made his way through the apartment. He saw a datapad lying on the sofa and he walked over and picked it up. He turned the device on, and found there was a message waiting for him to read.

'_Anakin, sorry I can't be there for when you return from Mustafar. I have returned to Naboo on a diplomatic mission to recruit supporters against Palpatine and his new Emperor. I don't know if you've heard but he has branded all the Jedi traitors and has put a bounty on them and the Separatist Leaders.'_

_Padme Amidala_

Vader re-read the information on the datapad to let it sink in. _'She's going to recruit supporters against my master, how dare she do such a treasonous act. I'll head to Naboo now then but first I'll report it to Lord Sidious.' _Vader thought to himself, and he now felt disgusted that his own wife would want to start a rebellion.

"Lord Vader, if she commits treason, she has to be arrested," Lord Sidious said after being shown the datapad that Padme had left for him. "There maybe other senators with her, and Jedi. Do what you must, with anything at your disposal to deal with this threat."

"Yes, my master," Vader said, nodding in agreement.

* * *

K'Kruhk and Kcaj flew the dropship back to the _New Hope_ that was still up in orbit over Nar Shaddaa, and flew it into its hangar bay alongside two of the other dropships. They could see numerous parked Vulture droids and Tri-fighters as well as the _Lapiz-Cutter_. K'Kruhk switched off the engines. The three Jedi walked off the dropship. The two Jedi Masters made their way back to the bridge leaving Bultar Swan to rejoin her friends.

"We have returned," K'Kruhk said as the two Jedi Masters came onto the bridge.

"Yes, very good, Jedi," Grievous spoke up first.

"We only suffered one casualty," Kcaj informed. "Harrdin was killed, but Bultar Swan persuaded the leader of the fleet to withdraw."

"Well congratulations on your success then," Mace said.

"Ah, we were going to discuss with Bultar Swan, on her killing of the Aqualish," K'Kruhk said recalling the conversation.

"What do you mean?" Shaak Ti asked, standing alongside Mace Windu.

"Bultar Swan killed the Aqualish, when he was unarmed," Kcaj explained.

"They allowed you to leave unharmed," Grievous said shrugging.

"It's not the Jedi way to kill an unarmed prisoner, or anyone unarmed in general," Shaak Ti said.

"It's nearly time for our audience with Zedo the Hutt," Cad Bane said as he came onto the bridge.

"Of course," General Grievous said.

* * *

Padme, C3-PO and R2-D2 had arrived in the city of Theed in Naboo. They made their way through the city, passing by many human civilians. They soon came upon the palace plaza that led to the entrance to the Royal Palace. The three of them made their way through the entrance and great hall and into the throne room. They came into the throne room and saw that there were several people in there; Queen Apailana was sat on the throne, Captain Typho was stood by her side, and there were several humans and aliens dressed in robes that looked like Jedi robes.

"Senator Amidala," Queen Apailana stood up to greet her.

"What's going on here?" Padme asked.

"We are offering shelter to these Jedi who have come here to seek shelter from the Emperor," Apailana explained as one of the older looking Human male Jedi walked over to them.

"It is a pleasure to meet you Senator Amidala," The Jedi Master said. "My name is Seph Kark." The Jedi master introduced himself to Padme.

"Nice to meet you Seph," Padme smiled briefly at the Jedi master. "I have returned here to try and gather support to unite against the Emperor." She turned to look at Queen Apailana.

"We don't really have an army here," Queen Apailana said. "All we have really is the Royal Security Forces under the leader ship of Captain Panaka, who is currently absent through vacation."

"We do have allies who are willing to stand up against the Emperor," Padme said.

"Okay then," Queen Apailana said. "Isn't possible there could be more Jedi out there willing to help us?"

There were a few moments of silence until Padme spoke up first. "It is possible; there are more Jedi that have survived the wrath of the Emperor."

"If we survived, then yes, there must be," Seph spoke up. "But I would have no idea where to start looking for other Jedi. They would have to come looking for us."

"I guess your right master Jedi," Queen Apailana said.

"We have allies such as Bail Organa, Mon Mothma and Garm Bel Iblis trying to recruit supporters to go against the Empire." Padme told the Queen.

"Oh that's good," Seph said.

"We will join you in your cause Senator Amidala," Queen Apailana said. "I will inform Senator Binks when he returns."

"Of course," Padme replied.

* * *

"Are you ready to go and see Zedo the Hutt?" Cad Bane asked Grievous, while they still stood on the bridge.

"Yes I am," Grievous nodded. "And you ready master Jedi?" He asked turning to look at Mace Windu.

"I am always ready, General," Mace Windu said.

"Let's get going then," Grievous said.

Cad Bane sat in the Pilot seat of the _Lapiz-Cutter_--since he knew where Zedo the Hutt was based, while General Grievous sat in the co-pilot seat next to him and Mace Windu sat behind them in one of the passenger seats. Cad Bane turned on the engines, and flew out of the hangar bay.

"I will take you straight to his base of operations," Cad Bane said.

"Good," Grievous said.

He piloted the _Lapiz-Cutter_ down into the atmosphere of Nar Shaddaa. They flew over the huge city for several minutes. There were hundreds of air cars and air buses. They landed the shuttle at the starport that was closest too Zedo the Hutt's base. After they had landed, Cad Bane led them outside down a few streets and what not.

"There it is," Cad Bane pointed to a large building ahead of them. There were as they expected guards stood outside the door of the building. The building itself looked like a huge factory, and was located in the back streets of Nar Shaddaa; there was a lot of rubbish and litter lying on the floor from the block of flats that faced them on either side of the street.

"It looks like a very warm place to live," Mace Windu commented.

"Hopefully we won't have to stay here long," General Grievous agreed.

"Well let's keep it quick," Cad Bane said quietly as they made their way over to the building.

As soon as they approached the entrance, the alien guards gave them a less then friendly greeting.

"Cad Bane," One of the Bith spoke first. "Zedo the Hutt is waiting for you inside. Be quick."

"Good," Cad Bane said, nodding at the Bith as they walked past the aliens and inside the building.

They walked down a very dull, corridor with dim lights, and they could see yet another two guards stood at the end of the corridor.

The Gammorean guards stepped aside due to instructions over commlink device from the other mercenaries outside. The door slid open revealing a huge chamber, with a hutt sat at the back of the dark room along with several other guests, guards and droids inside along with entertainers playing music and dancing on the far left of the room. As soon as they walked inside every one turned to look at them for several seconds then they continued with their own business. The three of them approached Zedo the Hutt, who was sat with two IG-88 assassin droids and a protocol droid stood alongside him. Zedo spoke first in his own native huttese language. The protocol droid translated it into basic.

"I'm glad you decided to stay and come here, Cad Bane," The protocol droid said. "Shall we get straight to business then?"

"Of course," Cad Bane nodded.

The protocol told Zedo the Hutt, and he nodded in accord. The Hutt said something very short.

"What is it you want from me?" The protocol droid interpreted.

"We need a safe place to live as there be many of us needing a safe place to live," Grievous said, speaking up to the Hutt. Zedo turned to look at the Cyborg. Zedo spoke in a surprised tone, and then went back to his normal tone of voice for several moments.

"Ah, you're General Grievous. The leader of the Separatist Army." The droid translated for them. "I can't grant you shelter—yet for the time being, as a suitable place is hard to locate. What are you willing to give me in return?"

The droid then finished. The three of them were silent for several seconds.

"Protection to your freighters during flight," Cad Bane offered.

The protocol relayed the offer to the large Hutt by his side. Zedo nodded his head, and then spoke to the droid once more for several minutes.

"Yes, it is true that we have rivalries with other crime organisations, like the Black Sun, who do from time to time attack our convoys," The droid translated. "How many ships have you got that you can offer for ship protection?"

"Just the one cruiser up in orbit over Nar Shaddaa," Grievous answered. "As well as numerous starfighters." _This meeting is taking much longer than it should do, just because we have to talk through a droid, damn lazy Hutt for not learning galactic basic. If he did it would have speeded up this whole meeting,_ Grievous thought while the droid continued to speak to his master. Zedo spoke once again at the droid, while looking at his guests—so to speak. After a few more moments of the Hutt speaking to the droid, the droid once again turned to look at them.

"I will help you find a suitable world for you and everyone onboard your cruiser a place to live." The droid said. "As you long as you will help protect our freighters during space flight while trading or for any other reason. And you can also provide us with some of your battle droids to help provide security around my base of operations." The droid finished.

Grievous looked at Mace Windu—who nodded in agreement with the terms as did Cad Bane, and he himself found these terms, what he called 'easygoing'.

"We agree with your terms," Grievous said. The droid relayed the order to Zedo the Hutt, who nodded with his enormous, round, slug like head and spoke again.

"You may leave, that is all." The droid said. "You will be contacted again when the next convoy is leaving off-world."

"Of course." Cad Bane said.

The three of them turned around and were escorted back outside.


	6. The Twins

Chapter 6 The Twins

Jedi Knight Olic le Teem sat down on the soft ground inside the hut on Kashyyyk. Olic looked over at his master, Kento Marek, who was already sat meditating on the floor while his wife, Mallie was sleeping in the corner on the ground. The three of them had escaped had been fighting in the Clone Wars but soon they had learned that the Clones had turned against the Jedi, and the Republic had suddenly become the Empire. When they had arrived, they had soon befriended the Wookies that lived here. They had chosen Kashyyyk as their destination as they knew that Master Yoda, Master Luminara Unduli and Quinlan Vos had all been present here during the dying moments of the Clone Wars, and they wanted their guidance for the future but so far they had no such luck. They had encountered small garrisons of Clone Troopers and remaining Separatists and Trandoshan slavers, and that was only a few days ago. But they were grateful for the Wookies offering them their help.

"We can't stay here for too long, Master," Olic spoke up. "The Empire will keep sending their garrisons of clone troopers until the whole planet is covered in them."

"I know that too," Kento agreed. "But it is too dangerous to return to the Jedi Temple; no doubt they have fled or have been killed. We can only hope that there are other Jedi who survived, but we can't know for sure. As you already know it is incredibly difficult to get off-world without having access to a ship." Kento said, taking a deep breath. "Despite all this, it is inevitable that we will have to move on from here soon."

"I guess you are right Master," Olic said. "I just don't like it, when I don't really know what's going on in the rest of the Galaxy. I feel as though we've been trapped on this planet for months even though it's only been a week or two."

"You'll get used to that feeling," Kento said, as he took a sip of water from his flask, he had filled it up from the river further up in the forest. They both heard blaster fire coming from outside nearby. Kento got to his feet as did Olic, he could hear Mallie yawning and getting up.

"What's going on?" Mallie asked as she got to her feet.

"I'll go and investigate while you two wait here," Kento said.

"On your own?" Mallie said, beginning to protest.

"I will be fine, if there is any danger I will return immediately. If not then I will make sure the area is safe." Kento said. "Look after Mallie, do not leave this hut unless it is life threatening." Kento then walked out of the hut, through the open doorway—even though there wasn't actually a door there, and into one of many forests on Kashyyyk.

* * *

Senator Jar Jar Binks arrived on Naboo, and he made his way to the Theed Palace to inform the Naboo of current events. He would also have to go and report back to Boss Dagon; the new chief leader of the Gungans.

Binks came into the throne room of the Royal Palace of Theed, and found Queen Apailana sat on her throne chair with Captain Typho, several human security officers, Padme and her two droids along with several beings—both human and alien dressed in Jedi robes.

"J-Jedi, what are theysa doing here?" Jar Jar Binks exclaimed.

"It's alright senator," Queen Apailana said, standing up to greet the Gungan.

"Representative Binks," Padme corrected her.

Binks looked at her and nodded.

"I have allowed the Jedi to seek refuge here to hide from the Empire," Queen Apailana said.

"Okay dokey," Jar Jar spoke. "Dey will have to be hidden well, your majesty."

"Don't worry about it Jar Jar," Apailana said firmly.

"Okay dokey," Binks said.

"We will have to move quickly, your majesty," Seph Kark, said as he looked at Apailana.

"Indeed we will," Apailana replied. "Senator Binks you must go and inform the rest of the Gungans our current situation and our own response towards the Empire."

"Yes your highness," Binks performed an awkward bow in front of the queen; nearly head butting her in the face as his head swooped down and then drooped back into its normal place. Binks hurried out of the throne room, and out of the palace altogether.

"We will have to move quickly now," Padme said. "Before it is too late to stop the Emperor."

"We will need to try and find out their current navy and army size." Captain Typho spoke up.

* * *

Anakin arrived up in orbit around Naboo in his Jedi Starfighter. He reached out in the Force, and he could sense Padme, down below on the surface. He flew the starfighter down into the planet's atmosphere, heading towards Theed Palace. As he arrived at the Theed Palace, he flew down into the hangar bay, and saw a small group of Royal Security Guards waiting for him down below on the ground. He landed down on the ground, opened the roof and force jumped out of the starfighter.

"Anakin," Captain Typho said, at the front of the group. "You have returned unexpectedly."

"Do you know where Padme is?" Anakin asked him.

"Yes, she is with the Queen," Captain Typho answered. "We will escort you there now."

"Okay then," Anakin agreed.

Captain Typho and his security officers led Anakin to the Queen's throne room. He walked alongside Typho, who Anakin remembered from when he came with Padme before the Clone Wars started. They soon came into the throne room; Anakin saw Queen Apailana sat on her throne, with Padme, R2-D2, but there were also several people dressed in robes that looked like Jedi were present here—Anakin even recognised some of them from the Jedi temple.

"Anakin!" Padme exclaimed as she saw him enter the throne room. She ran up to him and embraced him, not knowing Anakin's fall to the darkside, nor the fact that Anakin was responsible for the death of thousands of Jedi on Coruscant—neither did these Jedi here on Naboo as they were off world during operation Knightfall. Since then Anakin hadn't appeared in public with Palpatine.

* * *

While General Grievous and the others were dealing with the Hutts, Shaak Ti was looking through the recordings on a computer screen to try to find out who had stolen the ship from the hangar bay. She was stood behind one of the stations on the bridge. So far Shaak Ti wasn't having any luck; she continued to search through the records, at the time of the ship being stolen. She flicked through the different monitors, one was showing the Separatist leaders up on the observation deck and they were all accounted for—so it had to be either a Jedi or a stowaway. She heard someone approaching from behind, and recognised her presence immediately; it was Luminara Unduli.

"Hello Master Unduli," Shaak Ti said. "What is it?" Sensing her emotions in the Force, she felt concerned about something.

"It's Depa Billaba, we're losing her," Luminara Unduli informed her, speaking calmly. "Come quickly, we need to get her to a clinic down on the surface."

"Okay." Shaak Ti replied. The two of them hurried off the bridge, and headed to the medical bay onboard, where Depa Billaba had been looked after in her coma by medical service droids.

The two Jedi masters arrived outside medical bay onboard the _New Hope_; they heard a loud beeping noise of a machine coming from inside the ward. They walked down to the only bed that was occupied. They saw Depa Billiba lying on the bed, strapped up to a life support machine. There were two droids stood by bed holding onto her, as the heart monitor readings went up and down, while

"We're losing her," The droid said. "She is trying to fight it, but she won't be able to hold on much longer." Shaak Ti rushed over to the side of her bed, standing next to the two droids, and placed both hands on the female Jedi's chest, as the heart readings continued to go up and down—signalling most likely a stroke or heart attack while she was unconscious. Shaak Ti tried to meditate deep into the levels of the Force, to try and calm her down. But then the monitor levelled off, and the beeping stop. It was just a flat line. Shaak Ti opened her eyes and looked at the machine, and removed her hands from her chest as the droid checked her pulse.

"We've lost her." The droid said, looking at Shaak Ti, and then glancing at the other droid.

"We've lost too many friends, too many Jedi already," Luminara Unduli said, with a tear almost in her eye.

"We could have saved her, but just too slow." Shaak Ti said. "When we find a permanent to live, we will have a proper burial and ceremony."

"Of course, but now is not the time," Luminara Unduli said. "We will return to the bridge for now." She said as the droids put the body in a body bag. The two Jedi Masters came back onto the bridge. "I sense that Master Windu has returned, and is making his way back to the bridge." Luminara said.

Indeed they did find that Mace Windu, General Grievous and Cad Bane had returned from their trip to the visit the crime lord hutt on the surface.

"Was your trip successful?" Luminara asked Mace Windu.

"Yes, we have come to an agreement," Mace Windu answered.

"They will help us find a permanent place to live, as long as we can help them defend their trade ships." General Grievous said.

"Master Windu, I'm afraid Depa Billaba has passed away," Shaak Ti told Mace Windu.

"When did this happen?" Mace Windu asked.

"Only moments ago," Shaak Ti answered.

Mace shook his head, in disappointment. _It was my entire fault for sending to her Haruun-Kal in the first place,_ Mace Windu said.

* * *

Kento made his way; silently abut quickly through the jungle, trying to find the source of the laser fire. Kento unclipped his lightsaber off his belt and held it firmly in his right hand but not activating it just yet. It was hard picking out a single life form, in an enormous jungle like this, as it was filled with life forms. The only thing that was definite was that there is sign of trouble; somewhere here. He heard the sound of blaster fire, with the sound coming from ahead of him—but he could not see much through the small gaps in the foliage. He continued to move quickly and silently like a fox, through the jungle.

As Kento ventured further into the jungle, he came out into a small clearing, and finding several corpses of Wookies and Clone troopers. He couldn't see anyone else around. He felt a disturbance in the Force of some kind,_ I'll return to my wife, now,_ he thought to himself. He turned and headed back to the hut, where he had left his wife and apprentice.

Kento came back to the hut, and walked inside and found Mallie lying on the ground on her back in labour with Olic Le Teem helping deliver the baby, and Mallie was trying desperately not to scream by clenching her jaws together, but it didn't help she screamed to the top of her lungs, as the saying goes. Kento rushed over to his wife, and sat down beside her. She grabbed onto his arm, with both hands. The screaming continued until the baby was fully delivered, Olic held the baby as Mallie relaxed and took a deep breathe in and out with a sigh. Kento stood up, and stepped over to Olic, who passed him the baby.

"What should we call him?" Kento asked, looking over at his wife.

"I like the name…Galen," Mallie said, while lying down.

"I do as well," Kento said. "He will be called Galen then."

* * *

Anakin then looked over at the Jedi once more, and then back at Padme.

"What are these Jedi doing here?" Anakin asked Padme. He tried to remain remotely calm, in front of his wife, but inside he felt the tension rising.

"Queen Apailana is protecting them from the Emperor," Padme replied.

"I see," Anakin said, sounding rather doubtful.

Padme then placed her hands on her stomach, and began to scream.

"I think she's about to go into labour," C3-PO said from across the room, speaking to R2-D2 who was stood next to him.

"She needs to get to the medical bay, immediately," Anakin said, looking at Captain Typho.

Captain Typho took out his comlink and contacted the medical officers and doctors that were in the palace. Within a few moments the medical team came into the room, two of them carrying a stretcher.  
"Lie down Senator Amidala," One of the doctors told Padme.  
Padme did as she was told. She looked up at Anakin.  
"I will come to see you in a few moments," Anakin told her.  
Padme didn't understand at the time why Anakin didn't come with her straight away.

* * *

"Did you have any look finding out whom it was who stole one of my ships then?" Grievous asked Shaak Ti, looking at her, as he stood a few meters away on the bridge.

"No, not yet," Shaak Ti, replied, shaking her head.

"Where would this person have gone?" Luminara Unduli asked.

"I'm not sure, maybe their homeworld," Mace Windu answered.

"What do we do now then?" Shaak Ti asked Master Windu.

"We just have to wait until Zedo the Hutt decides to contact us," Mace Windu answered

Master Yoda was sat in one of the small compartment rooms onboard the _New Hope_, meditating away. So far the Grand Master of the Jedi Order, or at least the survivors of the Jedi Order, had managed to make contact with Qui Gon Jinn, and the late Obi Wan Kenobi. Both Jedi appeared as spirits, standing in front of Master Yoda in this small room.

"We tried to warn you of this treachery," Qui Gon Jinn said. "But the darkside was too strong for us to penetrate."

"I'm sorry I failed you masters," Obi Wan's spirit said, looking from Qui Gon to Master Yoda.

"There is nothing to apologise for," Qui Gon Jinn said. "It seems as though it's a turn for the best because you're now allies with our old enemies, the Trade Federation."

"Hmm." Yoda was deep in thought.

"There is still hope for the Jedi, and for the Galaxy. There are other Jedi who survived this extermination, across the galaxy. There are some on Naboo, hiding with the queen, but they won't be safe for much longer, Anakin has gone there to see his wife." Qui Gon Jinn explained.

Yoda opened his eyes. "Wife?"

"Padme," Obi Wan answered.

"Padme," Yoda repeated. "Senator Amidala."

"He kept his marriage a secret, he made me swear not to tell anyone, and now she's pregnant." Obi Wan said.

"Saved, they must be," Yoda said.

"We must go now," Qui Gon Jinn said. "May the Force be with you."

Yoda nodded. Then the two Force Ghosts or spirits faded away like a cloud in the sky. Yoda using his gimmer stick got up to his feet. Yoda then made his way out of the room, and headed to the bridge.

Yoda arrived on the bride, finding General Grievous stood there on deck, still waiting for the message from Zedo the Hutt, while conversing with Mace Windu, Shaak Ti, Cad Bane and Luminara Unduli.  
"General Grievous, head to Naboo, we must," Yoda said.

"W-what?" Grievous asked, turning around to look at the minute Jedi Master, the other Masters also turned to look at Yoda.

"Revealed it has, by the Force, that Anakin secretly married Senator Amidala," Yoda said.

The other Jedi frowned at this, as it was obviously news to them.

"How did you find that out?" Luminara Unduli asked.

"Obi Wan, through the Force, as a force ghost," Yoda replied. "Pregnant Padme is, with Anakin's child."

"And you want us to go and find them?" General Grievous asked.

"Crucial it is," Yoda nodded. "The hope for the galaxy, it is."

"We're still waiting for that slime ball Hutt on the surface to contact us," Grievous said.

"I will go down to the surface, and wait there till you return, and contact you when his ships are ready to move out." Cad Bane said.

"Good," Grievous said, nodding in agreement. "Remain in contact at all times, if at all possible."

"As you wish General," Cad Bane replied. "I will be off then, good luck with your mission."

"Thank you, but we won't need luck I expect." Grievous replied.

Cad Bane then strode off the bridge, and headed to the hangar bay.

"Wait till he leaves, then we head to Naboo." Grievous said to the captain.

"As you wish, General," He replied.

_So Anakin disobeyed the Code, the Jedi Order by getting married to a senator, _Mace Windu thought silently to himself. _He could've ruined her career, as well as his own._

"He has left the hangar bay, and is heading down to the surface." The captain announced.

"Good, now let's head to Naboo and get this done with." Grievous ordered the captain.

"Yes General." The captain responded as he plotted the hyperspace co-ordinates.

* * *

After the Medical team and Captain Typho had left the throne room with Padme, taking her up to the medical wing in the palace, Anakin was now with Queen Apailana, the two droids and the Jedi in the throne room. Anakin looked around at the queen, who walked over to him and stood by his side.

"Shouldn't you be with her, Master Jedi?" Queen Apailana questioned.

"Don't you dare question my actions," Anakin replied. In a split second, he took out his lightsaber and ignited it, in front of her. He looked into her eyes, as she gasped and took a step back. The other Jedi became alarmed, and started to move towards him, activating their own lightsabers. Anakin swung the lightsaber in front of her, catching her across the chest.

"No!" Two of the Jedi shouted out.

She screamed momentarily, and then there was silence as her body fell to the floor.

Anakin then raised his free hand, and pointed it towards the nearest Jedi.

"You're all traitors to the Empire," Anakin shouted as he lifted the Jedi off the ground and killed him in mid-air with a brutal Force Crush. He let the body drop to the ground. The other Jedi looked horrified. Two of the older Jedi came rushing in with lightsabers, but they were no match for the Sith Lord. Anakin sent the two Jedi a Force Wave, a stronger more powerful version of Force Push, that sent them both flying across the room, one crashing against the wall, and the other going through the huge window and down below—ultimately will die from the fall. Anakin then dealt very easily with the remaining Jedi, who tried their best to defeat Anakin, but they were no match for the Sith Lord. All that was remaining were the two droids stood up against a wall.

"You two are my old companions, you must tell Typho and Padme that the Jedi tried to kill the Queen, but she was killed during the fight. Do you hear me?" Anakin said.

"Of course Master Anakin," C3-PO answered, and Artoo answered with an affirmative beep.

"I must go and see Padme now, but you are my witnesses." Anakin said.

"Yes, Master Anakin," C3-PO replied.

Anakin then walked out of the throne room, leaving the two droids alone.

* * *

"We need supplies desperately," Kento said, while holding the baby, in the small hut on Kashyyyk. "Especially now."

"I will go and look for some then," Olic Le Teem said.

"You'll have to go alone, my apprentice," Kento said.

"I know master, you have stay with your child," Olic replied.

"May the Force be with you," Kento said.

"And with you master." Olic headed outside of the hut and into the jungle.

Olic Le Teem wandered around the jungle, for hours on end, searching for any Republic camps that would have supplies stashed away there. He could hear the normal jungle sounds, but no more blaster fire or anything like that. He continued to walk, staying alert but quiet and with easy access to his lightsaber in case of immediate trouble. He eventually came out into a clearing and saw numerous Wookies collecting dead Wookies from recent battles for burial. They all turned and looked up at the approaching Jedi, with some growling but others didn't—as some recognised him from the battle with the Separatists. Some of the Wookies stood up and greeted the Jedi Knight.

"Do you need any help?" Olic Le Teem asked.

The Wookie shook his head, but replied with a roar that could've been anything.

"I need supplies, desperately," Olic said.

The Wookie nodded, and growled something. Another Wookie stood up and walked over to them, and growled something else while looking at Olic. Then he signalled Olic to come with him.

"Okay then," Olic replied, nodding in agreement. The Wookie then signalled two other Wookie warriors who were present here to come with them.

The three Wookies led Olic through the Jungle, for what seemed to be an eternity, until soon enough they came out into a large clearing. Olic stared, and finally found what he was looking for—a republic outpost. They could there were buildings of some sort in the outpost and it was unfortunately surrounded by a perimeter fence. _I need to check whether or not it's electrified, it's probably not but that's just frivolous speculation_, Olic thought to himself as the Wookies loaded up their large bowcasters while trying to be silent and as quick as possible. Olic used the Force and lifted a small rock from the ground and through it at the fence–_oh how cliché—_typically nothing happened and he'd seen it done a few times in films. Olic looked past the fence and saw that there was a building close up to the fence, but he could easily see there was enough space between the building and the fence for him and the Wookies to get through. There was yet another building a couple meters ahead of it—so it was hard to know what or how many were in the outpost. Olic took out his lightsaber and ignited it, and cut through the fence, making a large enough opening to fit the Wookies through it.

"We can go through now," Olic said to the Wookies. He deactivated his lightsaber, and was relieved to find that no Clone Troopers had heard the sound of the lightsaber. The Jedi and the three Wookies went through the fence, sneaking into the outpost. Olic checked that there were no windows that could give away their positions, he also sensed there were only a few Clones inside this building. Olic peered around the corner off the building, he could see a squadron of clones marching and training alongside normal human officers that were stationed here. "We need to get rid of them." He kept his right hand on his lightsaber, as he watched them marching. Then the Clone troopers and officers dissapeared from view. Olic followed by the Wookies came around the building, and once again Olic glanced over at the other building to his left and was relieved too see there were no windows, and no one was inside that building. There was another large building ahead of them. Olic could sense the increasing anticaption from the Wookies--the sense of anticipating a battle between them and the soldiers stationed here. As they came into the opening--away from the building's cover, they saw that the Clone Troopers and officers were coming back this way. Right at them.

Olic immediately ignited his lightsaber, and the Wookies aimed their huge bowcasters at the officers and Clones. The Clones and Officers suddenly became alarmed, and went into action. _Thankfully, not all of them are armed, for such an occasion like this_, Olic noted to himself. The ones that were armed with rifles returned the fire at the Wookies and the lone Jedi. Lasers came flashing towards Olic at a fast speed. Olic parried the lasers, sending them away from him with his lightsaber. The Wookies fired their huge bowcasters that were giving the enemy a hard time, Clone Troopers and human officers were diving for cover on the ground, and trying their best to fight back. Olic sent some of the Clone Troopers a Force Push, sending some of them flying through the air and across the ground until they collided into each other or some other inanimate object. Unfortunately for them though, the other troops remaining here became aware of their presence and started to join in the fight.

_Oh it gets worse, as it always does--at least most of the time, _Olic thought to himself. Olic swung around and sent a few more Force pushes at the new arrival of troops, and was starting to grow impatient with them. Olic then spun around to face the remaining soldiers of the first lot, as one of the Wookies turned to face the new enimies. Olic rushed towards the destabilsed soldiers, and cut one down after another, without mercy. Olic took them out with little difficulty as he broke and twisted their guns with the use of the Force rendering them useless. He turned and saw one of the other officers that was still alive contacting someone by commlink. But the Wookies were busy dealing with other Clone Troopers for the time being.

"Stop him!" Olic shouted, trying to get the attention of the Wookies but failed miserably. He ran towards the officer, who in turn turned and began to run in the opposite direction while still holding the commlink. The human officer continued to run for several minutes until Olic thought of the idea of sending the officer a Force push. Olic then watched the officer as he tumbled through the air, and falling to the ground and dropping his commlink. Olic walked over to him, and saw that he was talking to someone dressed in black robes with the face mostly covered and scarred. "You shouldn't have done that."

"It's too late even if you kill me." The officer said, as if it was his dying last victory. "You won't get off this planet alive. Your treachery to the Empire has already been noted. The Emperor will deal with you and your Wookie allies."

"Shame," Olic said, as he crushed his commlink with the Force. "Get up now, you're coming with us." He ordered him.

"Whatever you say Jedi," The man replied, and he slowly got to his feet.

"What is your name?" Olic asked.

"What does it matter to you?" The man asked, turning to look at the Jedi, looking him straight into the eyes.

"I'm just making conversation," Olic replied. "Now what is your name?"

"My name is Deriel. And I don't want to have any more friendly conversation with you, Jedi scum." Deriel said.

"That should make this more easier then." Olic replied. "I need you to take me to where the supplies are kept here in this base."

"And what happens if I don't show you where they are?" Deriel asked.

"You get crushed to death by a Wookie," Olic answered, turning to point at the Wookies who were walking over to join them, as they had finished killing the remaining Clone Troopers and officers. One of the Wookies stepped towards Deriel, growling loudly but Olic stopped him just in time before he killed the officer. "No, don't kill him. We need him to find the supplies we need." Olic said to the Wookie and sent him a Force persuasion to calm the Wookie down.

"Take us to your supplies." Olic ordered Deriel.

"Fine by me, then." Deriel replied.

* * *

Anakin came into the medical wing of the palace, he could hear Padme screaming as soon as he walked inside the room. He found Padme lying down on a bed, in labour, with the nurse already holding onto one of the babies that was wrapped in a blanket. While Captain Typho was stood a distance away from the bed, just watching.

"A-N-A-K-I-N!" Padme screamed his name as soon as he had walked into the room. Anakin walked over to her side, and she thrust out her right hand grabbing onto his clothes and yanking him forwards. Anakin tried to calm her down using the Force, as well as trying to ease the pain. Soon enough the second baby was delivered, the second nurse held her in her arms and also wrapped in a blanket.

"One is a boy, and the other is a girl," The nurse told them.

"I like the name Leia," Anakin said, as the nurse handed Anakin one of the babies and the other nurse

"The boy can be called Luke," Padme said wearily.

Anakin nodded in agreement. "It's decided, they can be called Luke and Leia."

"Well we're not needed here any more, I will return to the Queen," Captain Typho announced. The Captain turned around and left the couple alone as did the nurses who were also in the room, leaving Anakin and Padme alone.

"They look beautiful," Padme said.

"They do indeed," Anakin agreed.


	7. Mission to Kashyyyk

Chapter 7 Mission to Kashyyyk

Captain Typho came into the throne room along with the other security officers and roual, and found all the dead corpses scattered across the ground, with the two droids that belonged to Padme and Anakin still stood here among the mess.

"The Queen!" Typho shouted. Captaun Typho rushed over to the queen and kneeled down by her side and checked her pulse. She was long dead. "What happened here?"

"The Jedi turned on the Queen and attacked her but Anakin tried to save her, and defeated the Jedi, but she still died in the process," C3-PO reported.

_Why didn't Anakin report it when he came into the medical bay--probably too concerned about his wife and newborn children_, Captain Typho thought to himself.

"We need to clean up this corpses, and announce to the city that the rest of the city that the Queen has been murdered." Captain Typho said to the other officers. "We will need to file a report of what took place here, especially Panaka will want to know what transpired here. You two are witnesses as is Anakin."

Palpatine was sat at his desk in his suite, it was only a few minutes since he had gotten a report from one of the Empire's outposts on Kashyyyk that it had been attacked by Wookies and a Jedi. He was now choosing whether to send a full garrison to Kashyyyk or Lord Vader to go deal with the Jedi. _It would be more efficient actually to do both, to send Vader along with a garrison of stormtroopers--not clone troopers anymore, that was the Republic soldiers, now they're the Empire's soldiers, but they still have some slight adjustments to be made to their armour,_ Palpatine thought to himself. Palpatine took out his commlink to contact Vader, who still should be on Naboo.

Vader was still with Padme and his two children in the medical ward in the Palace.

"Why don't you come back to Coruscant, rather than stay here?" Vader asked her.

"It's too dangerous to return to Coruscant, Naboo is my home." Padme said. Then she heard the sound of a commlink going off, the sound coming from Anakin.

"I've got to go and take this message privately," Vader said.

"Okay then," Padme said, as Anakin handed her the second baby. Anakin stepped outside of the room, and stepped out of view--so that Padme had no way of seeing Phe was talking too, as he knew it would be Palpatine. Anakin took out his commlink from his belt, and responded to the beeping by simply pressing a few buttons. Palpatine appeared as a small hologram on the device..

"The Jedi are still alive on Kashyyyk," Palpatine informed him. "They are giving our outposts a hard time. They must be dealt with, once and for all."

"I will go master, and show them not to mess with the Empire." Vader said.

"Good, I will be sending a huge garrison of troops to Kashyyyk to reinforce it, and soon enough those inferior Wookies will become our slaves." Palpatine said. "As will many other species."

"Very good, my master." Vader replied and then Palpatine ended the transmission. Anakin then put the commlink back onto his belt. Vader then went back to Padme.

"I have to go now," Lord Vader announced to Padme.

"What do you mean?" Padme asked.

"I can't explain just yet, I have to go but I will return." Vader said. He walked over to Padme and gave a kiss on her forehead and said goodbye to his children. He then turned and strode out of the room, and down one of the corridors as quickly as he could.

* * *

Deriel took Olic le Teem without fail or trickery too the storage shed that held the supplies in. Olic looked around saw several crates of food, weapons, ammo, medpacks etc.

"Very good," Olic said nodding. "Help me carry them."

"If you must," Deriel said as the Wookies began helping themselves.

"You will come back with me, unless you want to go with the Wookies." Olic gave him a hard choice.

"No I'll go back with you," Deriel said after he had glanced at one of the Wookies.

"Okay then, we're heading into the jungle now." Olic said.

* * *

Darth Vader soon enough came into the Palace Plaza without any difficulty and could see the Triumphal Arch up ahead. He had put his hood up to try to be more steathly but it wouldn't make much of a difference in a broad daylight. He suddenly sensed a disturbance in the Force of some sort--which momentarily made him stop walking, but it felt distant--no where near him. He dived deeper into the realms of the Force and felt that Padme and the Children were safe from harm and healthy, so with that conclusion, he continued to hurry his way out of the palace. Soon enough he returned to his starfighter, and took off into space, leaving his children and wife behind--but only for a short time, and then they would come back with him to Coruscant whether or not Padme wanted to live there. Coruscant was his new home now, not Naboo, and definitely that rock Tatooine anymore--that was a thing of the past. Coruscant was the present and future, and the centre of the galaxy itself, the centre of the new Galactic Empire.

* * *

After Cad Bane had arrived on the surface of Nar Shaddaa, he had left his shuttle at the local starport and had decided to go looking around for one of the local bars here in the city. He soon enough found one that looked promising--only from the outside though. It was called the 'Queen Jewel' which it had written on a board in large shiny pink writing above the door. Thanfully there were no bouncers or mercenaries on door duty, as he could see people walking in and out as they pleased. Some bars did have strict rules and regulations, and it was more strict for nightclubs that were ever present here on Nar Shaddaa. Cad Bane walked over to the entrance and even from out here--he could hear the entertainers and music coming from inside. Cad Bane opened the door and stepped inside, coming into the huge bar that indeed was more like a club or a cantina. There were indeed entertainers on stage in the centre of the room. Cad Bane walked over to the bar, and he saw that there was a droid and a Twi'lek stood behind the bar. Cad Bane signalled over to the bar tender, however the droid responded quickest. The droid walked over to Cad Bane.

"What would you like sir?" The droid asked.

"I don't mind, whatever your special is." Cad Bane said.

"Coming right up sir." The droid said. The droid took out a glass from underneath the bar, and took a bottle of something that was also underneath the bar. The droid popped it open with its hands and he began to pour the liquid into the glass. Cad Bane looked over at the liquid, which was a bright fizzy orange colour, and the droid passed the glass over to Cad Bane. Cad Bane picked up the glass with his right hand and begun to take a sip of it. The drink tasted slightly different to what he'd tasted in the past but it tasted good either way. He continued to drink and he looked over at the entertainers on stage, who continued to play instruments. The entertainers themselves were aliens, there were no humans present in the group, the main singer was a Bith playing a holophone, and there were two Twi'leks playing flutes. Bane took another sip of his drink, he then drank it all up in one go and placed the glass on the table. A split second after this, there was a loud explosion that shook the entire building. Fire was spreading throughout the building at a rapid speed. From the explosion, Bane was thrown off his seat and onto the floor as were many other people inside the bar. Bane felt the tremor of a second and a third explosion nearby, not only that but the sound of people screaming for their lives was pounding against his ears like a drum. He heard the shattering sound of glasses braking as they hit the floor. Bane slowly lifted himself back to his feet. He saw some other people lying on the floor--he couldn't tell if they were alive or not. As quickly as he could, Bane made his way outside. Outside, people were panicking, soldiers and security officers as well as doctors were arriving on scene as well as fire fighters. One doctor came over to Cad Bane.

"You need to scanned, and checked over sir, before you leave," the doctor said--he was a human doctor. "We'll get a stretcher, just hang on." He signalled to one of his medical team to bring over stretcher. A younger doctor brought the stretcher over to them. "Lie down." The doctor said to Cad Bane. Bane thought it may be good to just get checked just incase, as he can't return to the New Hope's medical bay yet. Bane heard several more explosions that were close by that alarmed the doctors and officers as they performed the rescue operations. _Its obviously a terrorist attack from an organization--local maybe, i have no idea, maybe Zedo the Hutt knows about it,_ Bane thought to himself.

* * *

Vader soon enough took off in his starfighter, and flew up into the air, and then soon enough he went into space, leaving the planet behind. He typed in the co-ordinates for Kashyyyk, as instructed by Emperor Palpatine. _Obviously some Jedi did survive this massacre, which is clearly evident, I'll hunt every single last one down until there are no Jedi left to stand and fight, _He thought to himself as his starfighter entered lightspeed.

* * *

Olic and Deriel returned with the supplies to the hut that Kento Marek, his wife and his newborn son were waiting for them.

"Who's this?" Kento Marek he questioned his apprentice, as he looked up at the newcomer, who was carrying three small crates in both hands.

"He is a republic officer, from an outpost the Wookies found in the jungle," Olic replied.

"What?" Kento said in surprise. He glanced at his wife who was holding Galen in her arms and then back at his apprentice. "You brought him here of free choice?"

"Yes, he is no threat anymore," Olic replied.

"I mite not be a threat, but my message got out to the Empire before you crushed the Commlink with the Force." Deriel shot back. "And he will deal with you accordingly."

"Emperor? You mean Chancellor Palpatine," Kento said, shaking his head. "We can't return to Coruscant because of his new laws, we saw it on the holonet from another outpost we'd attacked here on Kashyyyk."

"Yes, and he's going to make short of you when his garrison arrives," Deriel said.

"What new garrison? He's sending more troops here?" Kento asked.

"Indeed he is, Jedi scum," Deriel said, with an evil grin on his face, looking straight at the Jedi Master in the eyes.

"We desperately need to find a way to get off this planet indeed," Kento said, turning to look at his wife.

"But we don't have access to a ship or anything," Mallie said, shaking her head.

"Too bad you destroyed that commlink," Deriel said, shaking his head.

"Thats it, there might some other commlinks stashed away in these crates," Olic said thinking aloud.

"Well have a look then," Kento said.

"I will do," Olic nodded in agreement as he put his crates down on the floor. "Put the crates down on the ground." He looked over at Deriel as he gave him his command.

"As you wish," Deriel replied. He did as he was told, he put the crates down on the floor.

"Help me go through them," Olic said as he kneeled down on the ground in front of them. Olic begun opening the first crate, unfortunately for him it was padlocked. Olic took out his lightsaber from underneath his robes, that was clipped to his belt. He ignited it and sliced of the lock very carefully, he did this to each crate to make it easier for Deriel to look through them. Olic then put his lightsaber away back onto his belt. He then took the seal of the crate, revealing its contents. There were packets of food and bottles of water inside the crate but no sign of any technology, but they needed the food anyway--so it was good stuff. But as Olic looked through each crate, he started to get more and more dissapointed, as there were blasters in the second crate, ammo in the third, medical kits in the fourth, more food in the fourth and survival gear in the last crate--such as plasma torches, but no commlinks. _How strange, no commlinks what so ever,_ Olic thought to himself. He looked up at his master.

"No commlinks," Olic said.

"I can see that," Kento said, sighing. "It's not your fault, at least now we have food and water rations."

"Maybe we should return to the outpost, and see if there is anything there left over." Olic said.

* * *

The _New Hope _came out of lightspeed. General Grievous could see the planet of Naboo up on the bridge through the forward viewports. They were drawing closer and closer to the planet, which was shown by its increase in size through the viewports.

"Where are we heading General Grievous?" Viceroy Nute Gunray demanded, as soon as he stepped onto the bridge, for the first time in days.

"You're still here, remarkable," Grievous commented. "We are heading to Naboo to rescue some Jedi children."

"More Jedi," Nute Gunray said in a disgusted tone of voice. "We're getting bored of being up on the observation deck to be honest. We've ran out of things to talk about, and we don't have that much in common."

"You're free to leave this ship at any time Gunray," Grievous said.

"It's much safer here than on most planets for the time being." Nute Gunray said, shaking his head.

"Well don't complain then," Grievous said.

"I was just speaking my thoughts and the rest of the leaders of the Confederacy." Nute Gunray said. "We will need new supplies soon, as we will be running out soon."

"I will work on it," Grievous replied. Nute Gunray turned around and walked off the bridge--in no hurry what so ever. "Who will actually be going down to the surface of Naboo, to find these Jedi children then?" He asked the Jedi.

"I will go," Mace Windu said.

"I will go with you," Luminara Unduli offered.

"Of course," Mace replied.

"Be with you the Force Will," Yoda said, looking up at one master to the other.

Mace and Luminara both nodded in agreement.

"You may take a shuttle down to the surface," Grievous said.

"Right," Mace nodded. "Lets get going then." The two Jedi Masters made their way off the bridge and made their way to the hangar bay.

"I wonder if we could get some supplies from Naboo maybe, they could be open towards trade," Grievous said, thinking aloud, after they had left.

"That could be possible, maybe we should contact them on the intercom," Shaak Ti suggested, as she saw Yoda leaving the bridge--most likely going for some "more deep meditation.

"I will do that then," Grievous decided.

* * *

Viceroy Nute Gunray wasn't the only one onboard the _New Hope_ that was getting bored of being on this cruiser, doing pretty much nothing. Nute Gunray returned to his other Separatist friends up on the observation deck. Where to be honest, there wasn't much apart from that wretched world Naboo to observe.

"Where are we in the galaxy now then?" San Hill asked.

"That dreadful planet, Naboo," Gunray answered as he took a seat at the table. "To rescue some more Jedi."

"Oh great," Wat Tambor said sarcastically.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Ahsoka Tano asked, eavesdropping into their conversation as she silently approached the table.

"Humph. Eavesdropping." Wat Tambor said, looking around at the young Jedi. "To be brunt, I don't trust the Jedi--at least not yet."

"It doesn't help that your eavesdropping into our conversations, does it Jedi?" San Hill asked.

"I have a name, its Ahsoka Tano," Ahsoka introduced herself.

"Well thanks for the introduction," San Hill said, giving her a small smile.

"I was just being curious, as its really getting boring here." Ahsoka said.

"Tell me about it," San replied. "Take a seat if you must."

"Okay then," Ahsoka said. She took an empty seat from another table and sat down with the Separatists, which isn't something Ahsoka was used to--but i suppose now she would have to get used to it. "So where are heading then?"

"Naboo," Gunray answered. "It's a planet I--the Trade Federation blockaded many years ago, and is the home of Chancellor Palpatine and Senator Amidala."

"Okay," Ahsoka replied. "And we're rescuing some Jedi children?"

"Apparently so," Gunray said.

"Who's children?" Ahsoka asked curiously.

"I've no idea, Grievous didn't say who's," Gunray shrugged his shoulders.

"Oh," Ahsoka said simply. "Well I guess we'll find out soon enough."

"Im not really that bothered who's children they are," Gunray said.

"Well I am," Ahsoka shot back. "Where do you think we will end up going, for our new home then?"

"We don't know, but we most likely won't end up living alongside the Jedi. Grievous might, but we most likely won't." Gunray said.

"Why is that?" Ahsoka asked.

"Because unlike the Jedi and Grievous, we are not warriors, we haven't got anything to offer to fight against the Empire," San Hill answered. "During the Clone Wars we had vast amounts of money, thousands of ships, hundreds of planets at our disposal. Now we don't have any of that."

"Well thats up to you guys," Ahsoka said thoughtfully.

* * *

Mace Windu was sat in the pilot seat of the small shuttle, while Luminara Unduli was sat in the Co-pilot seat. One of the alarms went off onboard the shuttle.

"Incoming message," Luminara announced. "Coming from the _New Hope_."

"Answer it," Mace Windu told her.

Luminara answered it. General Grievous appeared on a small hologram appeared in front of them.

"I was just wondering, Master Windu, if while you are on Naboo, try to open trade with the ruling Queen, as we need supplies desperately," Grievous asked them.

"We will try," Luminara said.

"Good," Grievous replied. "That was all. Over and out." Grievous ended the message.

"We will have to do it, there's too much at stake, we can't risk losing any Jedi to starvation," Mace Windu said.

* * *

Olic and Deriel returned to the outpost once more. They came inside the Republic outpost, and hurried over to the corpses of the Republic officers and clones.

"Let's search each one," Olic said. "One of them must have a commlink on them."

"Even if you do find a commlink, who are you going to contact?" Deriel asked. "The Trandoshans? The Wookies?" He asked.

Olic stopped short. _I clearly haven't thought this through, who are we going to contact even if we do find a commlink,_ Olic thought to himself. Olic suddenly heard the deep rumbling of a ship. He turned and looked up into the sky as did Deriel. There was an enormous Victory Star Destroyer of the Galactic Empire moving through the sky slowly. Olic watched as several starfighters and shuttles came out of the hangar bay and fly down towards the planet's surface.

"I told you my message got out," Deriel said. "You are no match for the Galactic Empire. Soldiers will be soon here to finish you off, once and for all."

_It gets much worse then, we're doomed,_ Olic thought to himself. _There is no escape for us, anymore. We won't be able to hide for much longer, _Olic continued to think. He took out his lightsaber, preparing for a fight, a very long one indeed. He stood up to his feet. He turned and looked over at Deriel, and walked over to him.

"There's no where to hide," Deriel said as he stood up also.

"Your right. But you've outlasted your usefulness." Olic said.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Deriel asked, but got the meaning immediately. Olic ignited his lightsaber and thrust it towards Deriel--aiming for his arm, and caught it. His arm was incinerated off. Deriel screamed to the top of his voice in pain, but then it stopped as the lightsaber went through his chest. Olic then pulled it out. Deriel's body fell to the ground, and became a lifeless form. Soon enough Olic could feel through the Force the armies of the Empire swarming through Kashyyyk, and soon enough engaged with the Wookies. He could sense the officers making their way towards him--but they were most likely reporting in at this outpost. He kept his right hand firmly on his lightsaber. He walked up to the front entrance of the outpost. He saw the first few Clone Troopers appear from the jungle, with weapons armed and at the ready.

"Here's a Jedi!" One of the Clone Troopers shouted as they approached. "Inform Lord Vader immediately. Never mind the Wookies."

"Come on then!" Olic shouted at them. The first few Clone Troopers came torwards the Jedi Knight. Olic raised his free hand and dived as far as he could into the Force and summoned a Force blast of energy. The Force Energy shot out of his left hand like an energy ball, and came shooting through the air, hitting the first three Clones that approached him, that hit each of them straight in the chest. It winded them and made them dizzy, knocking them off balance--with one falling to the ground, but it would soon wear off. Olic raced over to them, holding his lightsaber, he ignited it as ran at pace. He sliced each clone trooper in the chest, before they had time to get up or out of their daze as it were. More of the Clone troopers came racing forwards from deep with in the jungle. _This isn't a fight I can win at all, _Olic thought to himself. Olic fired another wave of Force Energy balls, though no where near as strong as a Jedi Master could summon, hit two of the closest troopers. They both fell over but Olic had no time yet to kill them. As more troopers had come out into the open.

"It's just one lone Jedi," Said a human officer, as the other Clones began firing at Olic. Olic parried the shots with his lightsaber, and then using his free hand sent a strong Force Push at the newcomers. This sent some of the troopers flying backwards, and the others diving out of the way. Olic began walking towards them, while still parrying the lasers that were coming his way. He soon saw a new enemy arrive and it wasn't a clone, it was a human wearing black Jedi robes. Olic recognised him as Anakin from the Jedi temple. Olic saw that he was holding his lightsaber hilt in his right hand, but it wasn't activated yet.

"I'll deal with him." Lord Vader said. Lord Vader strode over to Olic, and during the process ignited his lightsaber, that activated into a dark blue colour.

"Where are the other Jedi with you?" Vader demanded.

"I am the only one here," Olic answered.

"You are no master," Vader snapped. "Tell me or you will pay severely."

"I am the only Jedi remaining here," Olic repeated.

"You lie." Vader countered. He raised his left free hand, and didn't even have to use his lightsaber, he lifted the Jedi Knight off the ground and gave him a Force choke. "Tell me now. Where are the other Jedi here on the planet?"

Olic didn't answer, as he held both hands around his throat but it was no good--the Sith Lord was too powerful for him. _I have bought time for Kento and his child, not enough probably, _were Olic's last few thoughts just before his body was released from Vaders grip, and the body landing on the ground in heap, motionless.

"There are more Jedi out here, contact me if you find them, leave them to me!" He demanded, turning to face the Clone Troopers.

"Yes my lord," One of the human officers answered.

* * *

Mace Windu and Luminara Unduli arrived in the court yard--the Palace Plaza, with the palace directly ahead. There were small groups of people dressed in black stood outside the Palace. The two Jedi Masters glanced at each other, and made their way through the small groups of people--who looked as though they were in mourning. The two Jedi Masters stepped into the entrance of the Palace, through the hallway. They were greeted by Captain Typho and several other security guards.

"Master Jedi," Captain Typho greeted.

"What is going on outside?" Mace Windu asked him.

"I'm afraid i bring dire news," Captain Typho said. "The Queen has been murdered. We have publicly announced it, and local people have come to mourn."

"Who killed her?" Luminara inquired.

"I'm afraid it was a Jedi." Typho answered, looking at her in the eyes. "But it doesn't make much sense as we were offering them their protection. Anakin, C3-PO and R2-D2 are the only living witnesses to what happened. All the Jedi here were killed."

"Anakin..." Luminara repeated, trailing off.

"Yes, he was here to see Padme," Typho said.

"Anakin is no longer himself anymore, he has fallen to the darkside of the Force," Mace Windu said. "He has become the Emperor's apprentice."

"W-what!? You're kidding?" Typho said with a frowned look, and shock in his voice.

"Where is he?" Mace Windu asked.

"He left, before we had chance to question him properly." Typho said.

"Did he take the children with him?" Luminara asked him.

Typho was taken aback there. "How did you know about the Children?" He asked her a question, rather than answering hers at first.

"The Force," Mace answered simply.

"Of course I should've known," Typho replied, shrugging his shoulders and sighing. "No the children are still here with Padme."

"He might return for the children then," Luminara said. "Where is Padme?"

"Come I will take you to her," Typho offered.

"Okay then," Mace Windu agreed.

Typho led the two Jedi throughout the palace, and to its upper levels, until reaching the Guest rooms. Typho knocked on the bedroom door.

"Senator Amidala," Typho said. "Ive got some guests to see you."

"Coming," Padme called back. Within a few moments, the door opened with Padme standing in the doorway.

"Master Jedi," Padme greeted, with a smile on her face. "This is unexpected. Please come in."

"Thank you," Both Mace Windu and Luminara said in unison.

"I shall leave you now," Typho announced.

"Thank you for bringing them to me," Padme said.

"Your welcome," Typho replied. Typho then turned and headed down the corridor, leaving Padme and visitors to discuss things.

Mace Windu and Luminara came into the room, finding C3-PO and R2-D2 in the living room.

"I wasn't excecting that you had survived this massacre," Padme said. "But I shouldn't have underestimated the Jedi Order."

"We had help." Luminara answered.

"Help?" Padme asked.

"Yes we have alligned with General Grievous and the Separatist Leaders." Mace Windu answered.

"General Grievous," Padme repeated in slight surprise.

"He saved the remaining members of the Jedi Order from almost certain extinction from the Sith." Luminara Unduli said.

"I suppose you do find the most unlikely friends in the darkest times," Padme said, thinking aloud. "So why are you here?"

"I am afraid we have bad news. This maybe hard to take." Luminara said. "Anakin has fallen to the darkside. He has become Palpatine's new apprentice."

"W-what? Anakin was here only a few hours ago. He can't have fallen to the darkside." Padme said, starting to get emotional, with a tear or two in her eyes.

"He personally tried to kill me, in front of Chancellor Palpatine," Mace Windu said. "And chose him over the Jedi Order."

"I don't believe you," Padme, shook her head.

"Where has he gone?" Mace Windu asked.

"I don't know, he said he had a mission to do for someone." Padme said.

Both Jedi glanced at each other, knowing the answer would be Palpatine.

"Did he say where he has gone?" Luminara Unduli asked.

"No he just left." Padme answered simply.

* * *

General Grievous was still, still stood on the bridge of the _New Hope_. He was dying to see some action, a proper fight or a duel with someone. _Hmm, maybe a Jedi would be willing to have a duel onboard, here somewhere, _Grievous thought to himself. He turned and looked around at Shaak Ti.

"Would you be prepared to have a lightsaber duel with me?" Grievous asked her.

"Yes, I would like to pass some of the time," Shaak Ti answered positively.

"I'll go easy on you, i'll only use two lightsabers on you this time." Grievous said.

"That's up to you," Shaak Ti said. "But there's not much space here on the bridge."

"Right," Grievous agreed with her. The two of them headed off the bridge and down the corridor, passing several Jedi on the way who were sat on the floor slumped up against the wall.

"Are there any sort of chambers or compartments on board?" Shaak Ti asked.

"Yes there are a few," Grievous answered.

* * *

"We think it is too dangerous for you too stay here Padme," Luminara said. "It would be much better for us all to stick together on the _New Hope_ rather than being scatted across the galaxy."

"No, Bail Organa should be returning soon, as he is trying to start a rebellion against the Empire." Padme said. "I should wait for his return."

"A rebellion?" Mace Windu asked.

"Yes to put up a fight against the Emire, before it grows any stronger than it already has," Padme said. "Only a few senators have joined our cause so far, Mon Mothma and Garm Bel Iblis."

"At least it is a start," Mace Windu said. "When and If Bail Organa returns will you come with us?"

"I will think about it," Padme said. "I have the children to think about as well."

Mace Windu turned and looked at C3-PO and R2-D2. "We could do with your help onboard the _New Hope _with different missions."

"No, the droids will stay with me." Padme shook her head.

"Okay then," Mace said. "We hope we can remain in contact with you."

"Wait, Master," Luminara spoke up. "We still need the supplies for the Jedi onboard."

"Ah of course," Mace Windu said. "We were wondering if we could open trade with you for supplies."

"We can give you supplies as a gift," Padme said. "We can come to some sort of an agreement."

* * *

Grievous and Shaak Ti stepped into a spare compartment that was big enough to fight in, as well as being room for spectators. K'Kruhk was stood in the small crowd, anticipating this fight--as he too had fought General Grievous and nearly lost his life to him. Grievous took out two lightsabers from his cloak pockets, and ignited each of them in unison, one glowing green and the other glowing a bright blue colour. Shaak Ti activated her own blue lightsaber.

"Are you ready?" Grievous asked.

"Of course," Shaak Ti answered. Both opponents stared at each other, looking straight into each others eyes. Never taking their eyes of each other--as true warriors should do. Grievous raced forwards, holding both blades firmly in his grasp. Shaak Ti stood her ground as the General came towards her. Shaak Ti moved at the last minute, swinging her lightsaber towards Grievous. Grievous parried the Jedi master's strike by swinging both lightsabers towards her, she ducked the first lightsaber, and brought her lightsaber up above her to block the second. Shaak Ti took a step back, away from Grievous as he brought the first lightsaber down towards her, followed by the second. Grievous closed the distance by stepping towards her once again, spinning both lightsabers. Shaak Ti jabbed her lightsaber forwards aiming towards Grievous chest, but he blocked the strike with both lightsabers. Suddenly the alarms across the ship went off, taking them all off guard.

"What's that?" Shaak Ti asked.

"I'm not sure." Grievous said, feeling interupted. "To the bridge."

* * *

"What can that possibly be?" Gunray asked, as he heard the sound of the alarms ringing across the ship.

"Some excitement hopefully." San Hill said, thinking aloud.

"Maybe I'll go and check it out," Ahsoka said.

"Yes and report back." Gunray said.

"Sure," Ahsoka said. She got up from her seat and left the Separatists alone at the table.

"Good, that got rid of her." Wat Tambor said as she was out of hearing range.

Grievous arrived on the bridge.

"Two battleships have dropped out of hyperspace, and are locking onto us," One of the battle droids reported.

"Where?" Grievous demanded, as really all he could see through the front viewports was Naboo.

"Behind us at an angle." The battle droid.

"Is it of Republic or Empire design?" Grievous asked.

"No we don't recognise it," The battle droid answered.

"We have to turn around then." Grievous barked. _They haven't started firing yet, _Grievous thought to himself.

"Yes General," The battle droid said. "We will start to move around, sir."

"Good," Grievous responded. As soon as the _New Hope_ shook violently and alarms went off again.

"One of the ships sir, is trying to contact us." The battle droid reported. "Shall I answer it?"

"Yes," Grievous thought. _They already fired at us, what can they possibly want? _Grievous thought to himself.

The battle droid flicked a switch and a human appeared up on the large screen. The human was dressed in green robes, not particularly military style as such--or one that he recognised. The man looked fairly young, with long jet black hair.

"Ah, I'm glad you've responded," The man said. "We've tracked you all the way from Nar Shaddaa. We hope that warning shot, will be the last one we fire today."

"Who are you?" Grievous demanded.

"Right now, I'm the man who controls all the lives onboard your ship, General." The man said. "The name is Admiral Galsar."

"You don't threaten me," Grievous said, as the _New Hope _had finished turning to face the two cruisers.

"No this is no idol threat im making," Admiral Galsar said. "It is a fact. You must surrender to us immediately, and work for us rather than that fool Zedo the Hutt."

"Ah, so you're rivals with Zedo?" Grievous asked.

"He is much more than a rival, he is my enemy." Galsar said. "You won't gain anything from that overrated slug. You will also have to hand over that precious cruiser of yours, for something a bit smaller."

"We would never agree to your terms," Grievous said, shaking his head.

"Well so be it then. Prepare for war, and we will take that ship from you then. Whether your alive or dead." Galsar said. Suddenly the screen went blank, someone on the other side must've ended the transmission.

"Launch what starfighters we have left," Grievous ordered. As soon as he had given out the order, the alarms went off again, the _New Hope_ shook violently and there was an explosion somewhere across the ship.


	8. Politics

Chapter 8 Politics

The explosion on the _New Hope _came from the observation deck. The viewports that went around it were smashed open, and fire spreading inside the room. The vacuum was sucking everything out. Nute Gunray and the other Separatists were holding onto their seats and the table for their very lives, as were some of the Jedi that were still up there. Nute Gunray watched as Poggle the Lesser--the smallest sentinent being in the room, lost his grip from the chair and went up into the air and flying out into the vacuum of space. They were unable to save him.

"Oh dear, I don't believe it." San Hill said sharply as the shutters came to protect them from the vacuum. The rest of them dropped onto the ground. "Thank goodness for the shutters."

"That was a little too close." Nute Gunray said, as he brushed his robes out of habit.

"You mean close enough," San Hill shot back. "You just watched one of your business partners get thrown out into space!

"What's goin on anyway?" Passel Argente demanded.

"This is the excitement we wanted." San Hill answered as the Trade Federation Cruiser rocked again as it was hit by turbolasers.

"This ship won't last much longer, I don't think." Shu Mai said starting to panick.

"We need to get off the observation deck altogether." One of the Jedi who were present here spoke up.

"I'll second that." San Hill said, overhearing the Jedi's suggestion.

"Let's get off here and into the main part of the cruiser." Gunray suggested.

* * *

"We need to come with a new tactic sir," One of the battle droids suggested.

"Indeed," Grievous said simply. The two ships were beating them badly. And what made it worse, was that it had to be the battle droid to state the obvious first.

"We've nearly lost all power in the observation deck and various other parts of the ship." The battle droid reported.

"We're going to need repairs." Grievous said. "Do the two ships have shields?"

"Yes front shields, but the scanners show they have taken off their rear shields to support the front shields." The battle droid said.

"Is that so?" Grievous asked.

"Yes," The battle droid answered.

"Maybe we can attack the unshielded areas," Grievous said. "Give that command to the droid starfighters. We still have some left right?"

"We do have some starfighters left attacking the ships." The battle droid said.

"Some slight positive news," Grievous said. "Give them the order."

"Yes sir," The battle droid replied. The alarms on the bridge went off again.

"What's happened now?" Grievous asked.

"Another ship has just dropped out of hyperspace, thats coming towards us." one of the battle droids reported. "Its a Corellian Corvette model."

"They could be allies or enimies," Grievous said. "Scan the enimies ships see if the starfighters are carrying out their tasks." Grievous then turned to look at the battle once more, the two enemy cruisers of that Admiral Galsar were drawing closer to them, slowly moving towards them--however one of them was turning around to engage the Corellian Corvette.

"The plan is working General," The battle droid said. "The life support on the second cruiser has been critically damaged. While the first one is still in good shape--the one thats coming towards us. However the second cruiser is turning away from us to engage that Corellian Corvette."

"Yes I can see that," Grievous replied. "We need to get the remaining starfighters to attack the nearest cruiser."

* * *

Bail Organa, Mon Mothma and Garm Bel Iblis were stood in the cockpit of the main bridge on the _Tantive IV_. There were two pilots were sat flying the Corellian Corvette. Bail Organa could see two large cruisers through the forward viewports. One cruiser was facing them, and another facing Naboo.

"We're picking up three ships up in Naboo's orbit," One of the pilots said, looking at the computer screen layout. "Two of the ships are unidentified cruisers and the third is a Trade Federation Cruiser."

"A Trade Federation Cruiser?" Bail Organa asked, rather surprised.

"Yes," The pilot answered simply. "We're picking up quite a large number of sentinent beings coming from the Trade Federation Cruiser as well as Droid readings."

"How many sentinents onboard?" Garm Bel Iblis questioned.

"Well over fifty," The pilot answered. "It seems as though these two ships are attacking the Trade Federation Cruiser, now only one as the other is coming for us." Just as he had finished talking the alarms went off. "It is now locking onto us."

"Fly straight for it, and fly over it captain," Bail Organa said.

"Yes sir," The pilot responded.

* * *

Kento Marek was with his wife and son still in the hutt on Kashyyyyk. A fair few minutes ago he felt the death of his apprentice in the Force. He felt the Wookies being captured by brute force, the only reason they would be captured was for Slavery in Kento's eyes.

"We have to get out of here, its too dangerous now," Kento said, as his wife stood up holding the baby in her arms. He could feel their enimies drawing closer and closer to them.

Lord Vader had left a small garrison of troops at the outpost that was attacked by the Jedi and Wookies. He continued to search for the remaining Jedi in the jungle along with dozens and dozens of Clone Troopers that had arrived on the ground by shuttles and Republic Attack Gunships. He could sense in the Force that the Jedi were close. He continued to make his way through the Forest, he could the blaster fire from Wookies and Clones in the distance. As he moved he soon came out into a clearing and saw some sort of a hut up ahead. He sensed there were people inside. He stood and watched as a small family of three came out of the hutt. One man dressed in Jedi Robes, and a woman holding a child. The three of them stopped still as they saw Vader looking over at them.

"Anakin," Kento said in surprise. "What are you doing here?"

"I was going to ask you the same question," Vader said, as he stepped a few feet nearer to him.

Kento saw that Anakin was holding his lightsaber in his right hand. Kento took out his own lightsaber, and ignited it; glowing a bright green colour. Anakin ignited his own lightsaber.

"Run," Kento told his wife.

"No, don't leave me," Mallie argued as Kento engaged Vader in a duel.

"Anakin, you can't win," Kento said.

"Anakin is not my name anymore," Vader said, as he struck Kento's blade several times with brute strength. "The name is Darth Vader." The blue and green lightsabers continued to clash and smash against each other in the air. Vader was more brutal with his Form V Djem So--as it was a more aggressive lightsaber stance than Kento Marek's stance. Vader parried the older man's strikes with ease, eventually Vader broke through his defence, and broke his lightsaber with one sweeping arc and slicing off his hand in the process along with losing his lightsaber.

"No!" Mallie screamed, and the baby started crying at the top of its lungs. "Galen please stop crying."

"You won't win, Sith Lord," Kento said, looking at his murderer for the last time. Vader stabbed his lightsaber through Kento's chest, the older Jedi slumped to the ground. Vader pulled the lightsaber out of his body as the woman began to run into the jungle but Vader stopped her short, by Force lifting her off the ground, while she was still holding the child.

"Let me go!" She shouted. Vader approached her, and let go of his Force grip on her. She fell down to the ground, the baby was still screaming in her arms. "Please, I beg of you, don't kill me. Olease don't kill Galen." She tried to get up off the ground, she got to her knees at least. Vader walked over to her still holding the activated lightsaber. He stabbed her through the neck; killing her instantly. She released the child, her body slumped to the ground, and the child was finally released from her grip. _This child is most likely force sensitive, he can help me route out the Empires enimies, I can't be everywhere. You will be my secret apprentice,_ Vader thought to himself. He bent down and picked up the child called Galen.

* * *

"What is going on?" Ahsoka Tano asked the General as she came on the bridge.

Grievous turned around and looked at her. "Two cruisers dropped out of lightspeed and sent us a message, trying to take our ships from us, and started firing at us." Grievous answered her question. "A third ship, a corellian corvette has also arrived here."

"Sir, they are now sending a boarding crew," A battle droid reported.

"How many ships are they sending?" Grievous asked.

"Three small shuttles filled with sentinents." The droid reported.

"We can deal with them." Ahsoka said confidently. "They'll most likely try to come through the hangar bay."

"Indeed, let them come." Grievous said, as he turned to look at the nearest cruiser that had stopped moving towards them, and stopped firing at them for the time being.

"Just as you predicted Jedi, they're are coming in through the hangar bay." A battle droid reported.

The three shuttles came into the hangar bay, and landed in the spaces that were left from the starfighters that had gone. Aliens armed with viro-axes, and slugthrowers came out of the three ships. They regrouped into one large group, led by an unsual alien race called a Trogodile. It was a reptillian alien race, quite tall and large, with green scaly skin, a spiny ridge rising along behind their red eyes, and going down its neck and back. It was wearing red armor, and there were two large curved swords hanging from its belt.

"Vasnuu," One of the other aliens, a male Gand spoke to the leader. "Admiral Galsar wants us to take the bridge by force, and kill anyone who gets in the way."

"I know what Galsar wants," Vasnuu shot back. "Let's head out of here." He looked around and saw no droids or sentinents in the hangar bay for the time being. He saw the hangar bay doors open wide. There were armed droids stood in the doorway, battle droids. They looked over at the intruders.

"Kill them." Vasnuu ordered. Three Gand warriors aimed at the battle droids and fired their TC repeating blaster rifles at the droids. There was only a small number of droids present. Vasnuu watched as one of the Gand warriors went down to the ground from blaster fire, apart from that the battle droids were relatively easily defeated. "let's move out."

Synred Vols, a male Sullustan Jedi Master, onboard the _New Hope _had heard the laser fire coming from the hangar bay. He took out his lightsaber and ignited it. It activated as a bright yellow colour. As he approached the hangar bay, he saw several armed aliens coming out of the hangar bay.

"Kill him," One of the aliens hissed.

"What are you doing here?" Synred demanded, but decided against using his energy to talk as they began firing at him. The nearest creature was a male Gand welding a TC repeater blaster. Synred parried the incoming lasers, but another Gand joined alongside him and began firing at the Jedi.

"He's one of those warriors you hear about, that carry those laser swords," One of the Gand said as he continued to shoot his weapon.

"Yes, a Jedi," An alien hissed from behind them.

Synred ran towards the two Gand warriors, while he still parried the lasers.

"He's getting too close to us," The Gand said.

"Kill him." Hissed another voice from a few meters behind them.

The two Gand's took a step back, but it was no good. The Sullustan Jedi Master swung his lightsaber out towards one of the Gand's weapons, and cut it in half--breaking it instantly rendering it useless. Within a second, he sliced the weapon of the alien warrior stood next to him. Synred cut down both Gand warriors with his lightsaber, both falling to the ground. Another alien aimed a larger weapon of some sort at the Jedi and fired it. Synred ran towards the next alien, but the energy pulse came flying out of the gun and came screaming through the air. The energy pulse detonated as it hit the yellow lightsaber, with sparks going all over the place.

"Surrender," Synred demanded.

"Never," The alien with the pulse rifle shouted back. "Take this." He flicked a switch on his rifle. He then fired several energy pulses that came flying towards the Jedi Master. One pulse hit his lightsaber, another energy pulse hit his legs--and suddenly he felt this odd feeling in his legs. The third pulse slammed into his right arm. He couldn't feel his legs or right arm anymore--it was like they had just been disabled. Synred used his left hand and took the lightsaber out of his right and into the left hand, just as more energy pulses came flying towards him. Synred parried the first one.

"This guy doesn't seem to know when to die." One of the aliens said as he fired lasers at him, as the energy pulses came flying in at him again. Synred sent them a Force push with his free hand, sending the alien with the pulse rifle flying into the air and colliding into another alien.

* * *

Grievous watched the Corellian Corvette fly over the second cruiser, coming towards them--the _New Hope_.

"Sir, it appears as though these aliens have killed the squad of droids you sent down to the hangar bay," Another battle droid said, looking up from his screen.

"What?" Grievous snapped, turning to look at the droid. It was a battle droid with a gold strip--OOM-1Z.

"I'll round up a few Jedi, and we'll sort them out," Ahsoka Tano said as Grievous turned back to look out the viewports. The Corellian Corvette seemed to be pulling up alongside them.

"Actually there's a Jedi already trying to take them down." OOM 1Z answered.

"Let's have a look," Ahsoka replied. She walked over to the droid, and looked at the screen. The droid stepped away from the screen, letting her get a better look at it. She saw a Sullustan Jedi Knight fight these alien warriors in the corridor, presumably the corridor that led to the Hangar Bay. She watched lasers and energy balls come flying at him and overpowered him. She gasped as the Sullustan Jedi Knight went down onto the ground, murdered by these brutal aliens. "We have to do something."

"Send Droidekas, to greet them." Grievous said. "And another squad of battle droids. Kill them all."

"Yes sir," OOM 1Z replied. The alarms on the bridge went off. "The Corellian Corvette is hailing us sir."

"Answer it," Grievous responded.

A man appeared on screen, and Ahsoka recognised him instantly. "Bail Organa."

"Ah, you're the Jedi, Ahsoka Tano. Its good to see that your alive." Bail Organa said, looking at her, then at General Grievous. "General Grievous, you look as though you could do with some help." He offered.

"Yes I could do with some help indeed," Grievous took the offer.

"We'll turn around, and help you fight these two cruisers." Bail Organa said. "Then we have a few things to discuss."

"Of course," Grievous agreed. "Let's move towards them then."

"Yes, that would be the right decision," Bail Organa said. "Over and out." He cut the message, and the screen went blank.

Admiral Galsar was now sat on the bridge, on his large comfy round chair that had been specially designed for him. He could see the two enemy ships making their way towards them.

"How is Vasnuu doing onboard their ship?" He asked his captain, who came onto the bridge and stood next to the Admiral.

"They have made it into the hangar bay on the enemy cruiser, and have lost a few warriors in the process, but are making their way to the bridge." Captain F'wark reported.

"Good, very good," Galsar said. "We may as well take that second ship. We don't need witnesses around."

Vasnuu and the remaining alien warriors continued to make their way throughout the Trade Federation Cruiser, heading for the bridge. Vasnuu held both of his swords, one in each hand, keeping alert in case more of those Jedi warriors appeared--and indeed they did. Three more of these warriors appeared at the end of the hallway. Two were human or at least humanoid and one was a female Togruta.

"How many of those warriors can you see on the Screen?" Grievous asked Ahsoka, who was still stood at the station.

"At the moment, eight I can see in the screen, and are engaging with Shaak Ti, Quinlan Vos and Tyrin Nonda." Ahsoka Tano answered. "There are other wandering around different parts of the ship, who've broken up from the main group."

"Humph. Shouldn't those droidekas be on there way?" Grievous inquired.

"There on their way sir," Another droid--OOM 2X, with a silver strip on its shoulders spoke up from his station.

"Are the Jedi winning the battle so far?" Grievous posed another question.

"Yes," Ahsoka answered simply. "They've killed two of their warriors, with no losses so far."

Tyrin Nonda sliced one male Aqualish warrior across the chest, cutting him in half, and then finishing him off with a killer blow to the head, he looked over at Shaak Ti further up the corridor was dueling with the alien with two Swords. While Quinlan Vos had just finished defeating a Gand warrior.

"You are no match," Vasnuu hissed at her, as he swung the blades at her, she blocked each strike with her lightsaber, hardly moving an inch. Shaak Ti crouched slightly and spun around in an arc, kicked out with her right leg towards the Reptillian creatures ankles--it worked as it tripped him over, he dropped both of his swords.

"Do you surrender now?" Shaak Ti offered.

"No, never," Vasnuu shook his head, just as he twisted around and tried to reach for one of his swords, he saw her blue blade come down and slice it in half. She looked over and saw the last alien go down to Quinlan Vos blade. Quinlan Vos walked over to her and the alien intruder.

"You're coming with us to the bridge, so that the General can decide what to do with you." Quinlan Vos said.

* * *

Cad Bane woke up, opening his eyes slowly. Thankfully he didn't feel any pain around his body. He found himself on a bed in a medical bay. He raised himself slightly, and then climbed off the bed just as a male Human doctor and a medical droid came into the room.

"Ah, you're finally awake," The doctor said. "We gave you strong painkillers and put you in a tank of bota as we did find shards of glass in your body, along the surface of your skin."

"I didn't feel any glass on me, before." Cad Bane said.

"No, only tiny, minute shards of it." The doctor said. "But they had to be removed."

"Am i free to go now?" Cad Bane asked.

"Yes, you can go whenever you want." The doctor answered.

"Did anyone find out who it was who caused those explosions?" Cad Bane asked.

"No, the police and the National Guard are trying to find out who though." The doctor answered.

The _New Hope _and the _Tantive IV _assaulted the nearest cruiser, head on, firing at its bridge. Soon enough the second cruiser joined in the fight, as the shields on the first went offline.

"Good, we are winning," Grievous said rubbing his hands together.

"General, we've brought a prisoner for you," Quinlan Vos said, as he came onto the bridge along with Shaak Ti, holding onto an alien with hands binded by an electronic pair of handcuffs.

"Ah," Grievous said, turning to look around at the prisoner. "You're the one who thought they could take over this ship, with your pitiful warriors."

"Speaking of which have all been defeated now." Ahsoka spoke up. "We have three new ships for use."

"Good." Grrievous said. "You are doing a good job there, you may work at that station for the time being. Until further notice."

"Oh cool," Ahsoka said.

"What about me sir?" OOM 1Z asked.

"You can escort him to the detention centre, and guard his room." Grievous ordered.

"Yes sir," OOM 1Z replied.

"One of the cruisers is launching escape pods." OOM 2X reported.

"Well thats good as well," Grievous said. "Shoot them down, if at all possible. We will move onto the second cruiser in the meantime."

* * *

Mace Windu and Luminara Unduli loaded up several crates of food and water onto their shuttle. There were quite a number of crates, for the Jedi onboard the _New Hope_ as well as the Separatist Leaders. After they had finished loading up the shuttle, Padme and Typho had come to say goodbye to them.

"Good bye and good luck," Typho wished them luck, for their journey.

"Yes, may the Force be with you," Luminara Unduli said.

"Good bye, Masters," Padme said.

"Remember to contact us, if Anakin returns," Mace Windu told her.

"I will do," Padme replied.

Both Jedi Masters climbed onboard the shuttle in the hangar bay of the spaceport. And locked up the exit ramp as soon as they got onboard. Padme and Panaka watched the shuttle take off the ground, fly up out of the spaceport and into the air and dissapearing from view altogether.

* * *

Admiral Galsar had seen that defeat was imminent, and had taken an escape pod all too himself. The Escape pod will soon be picked up by the second cruiser, where they will make their retreat into the hyperspace. Soon enough as expected, he arrived in the hangar bay of the second cruiser. He flicked a switch, that opened up the hatch, he could see soldiers on duty waiting for his arrival. Galsar came out of the escape pod. "Take me to the bridge. Prepare for lightspeed."

"What about the other escape pods?" One of the aliens barked up the question. "The ones that have been dragged into the planets atmosphere.

"Nevermind them, we must leave while we are still alive." Galsar replied.

Grievous watched the second cruiser enter lightspeed as the other cruiser exploded into flames. _Finally, things are starting to get better now,_ Grievous thought to himself. The alarms went off on the bridge.

"The Corellian Corvette is hailing us again sir," OOM 2X reported.

"Answer it," Grievous told him. Seconds later Bail Organa appeared onscreen again.

"Looks like we have come out victorious from this battle, General." Bail Organa said. "We would like it if you, and one or more of the Jedi Masters would come aboard our ship, for a discussion. We will contact Padme down on Theed."

"Of course," Grievous agreed with his request.

"General, our shuttle has returned from Naboo," OOM 2X reported.

"Finally." Grievous said. "I will inform Master Yoda. Over and out."

* * *

Soon enough Vader had returned to Coruscant, and was now making his way into Palpatine's office, while holding this child. As soon as Vader walked into the office, Palpatine stood up immediately.

"What is this you bring before me?" Palpatine demanded, walking over to his younger apprentice.

"A child, the mission was a success," Vader told him. "There were no more Jedi left on the planet apart from this child."

"He is force sensitive then?" Palpatine inquired.

"Yes," Vader answered.

"He may come in use, as long as you don't teach him the Sith principles, then strictly speaking he won't be a Sith." Palpatine said.

Vader nodded in agreement. "He could help us route out our enimies, like the Separatist leaders--who are still alive somewhere."

"Very good. It will take a while though before he can fight. You are willing to raise him as your own child?" Palpatine posed him another question.

"Yes," Vader answered. _I already have my own children on Naboo though, they need to be brought here. It's not safe out there._ Vader thought to himself.

"What is it Lord Vader you seem distant?" Palpatine asked, his eyes narrowing slightly, out of concern.

"Nothing master," Vader lied.

"Well lets hope it stays that way." Palpatine replied. "You must keep that child a secret from the eyes of the public. For you and your own safety." Palpatine said as he sat behind his desk. "I'm glad you have returned. I have a mission for you. Only moments ago I recieved a report that the Clone Commandos on Murkhana disobeyed my orders--to kill the Jedi that were stationed there. You know what to do Lord Vader."

"Yes my master." Vader said. He looked down at the child. "What do I do with him?"

"Either leave him in your apartment here on Coruscant, or take him with you Lord Vader." Palpatine gave him the choice.

"I'll leave him, as long as there is a guard of some sort to watch over him." Vader said.

"Of course," Palpatine nodded in agreement.

* * *

Eventually Grievous, Master Yoda, Mace Windu, Padme, Bail Organa, and two other senators--Garm Bel Iblis and Mon Mothma were sat around the table in the conference room onboard the Corellian Corvette called the _Tantive IV_. R2-D2 and C3-PO along with one of the crew onboard were taking care of the children.

"We are glad General that you have taken the Jedi under your command," Bail Organa said.

"No problem," Grievous replied. "We are searching for a new, temporary home for the Jedi and ourselves while the Empire owns Coruscant."

"That is a difficult task," Mon Mothma said.

"It has been so far," Grievous agreed with her. _Ah that reminds me, Cad Bane has not yet made contact with us, that fat slime ball musn't be ready yet to send his ships out for trade,_ Grievous thought to himself.

"We don't yet know the full size of the Empire's fleet or army,"Garm Bel Iblis spoke up. "We are trying to gather soldiers, to rebel against the Empire."

"What about the droid armies? All the ships you had during the Clone Wars?" Mon Mothma asked.

"We have heard nothing from any of the other ships that were up during the last few hours of the Clone Wars. As far as we know, that is the last cruiser we have access to." Grievous said. "As for actual droid armies, we have a limited amount of droids onboard. But thats it. No droid factories remaining, all the planets have been most likely been swamped into the Empire."

"We can't by any means fight the Empire in a total war," Mace Windu said. "We don't seem to have the resources or people available for that."

"Yes, definitely not," Mon Mothma said. "We will have to change our tactics altogether."

"Against the Empire, favour hit and run tactics I do," Yoda said. "Most effective, it could be."

"That sounds as though it would be more useful," Garm Bel Iblis agreed. "We do really need more allies, from different planets that will be willing to work alongside of us."

"Where do we start looking for other allies then?" Padme asked.

"Any planet that doesn't want Empire control," Mace Windu answered.

"Start first, in the Outer Rim planets, we should," Yoda suggested.

"Yes that might be a good idea," Mon Mothma said. "Whether they are strong or weak, any help is useful. We need spies to locate Imperial outposts, space stations."

"That sounds good to me," Garm Bel Iblis said.

"In turn that means we need a proper base of operations," Bail Organa said. "Where we can organise things."

"What about Naboo or even Kamino?" Padme suggested.

"Naboo is too dangerous because Anakin could return and intervene at any time." Mace Windu disagreed. "And Kamino maybe too dangerous because of its use of Clones. The Clones only respond to its new master now. Not the Jedi."

"True," Mon Mothma said simply. "We do have other allies in the Senate who joined the Delegation of 2000, such as Fang Zar, Nee Alavar, Chi Eekway."

"We will have to find them, and hope the Empire does not get to them first." Grievous said.

"We will have to go to their different homeworlds and find them." Garm Bel Iblis said.

"Or more likely, won't they still be on Coruscant," Padme suggested.

"If they're on Coruscant, we can't go there, not yet for the time being." Grievous said, shaking his head.

"No it is too risky for the Jedi or yourself. You're still all on the wanted list by the Emperor himself." Bail Organa nodded his head in agreement. "But its not dangerous for us to return."

"You should head to Coruscant first then. If they're not on there, they may be on their homeworlds or have already been killed by Palpatine." Mace Windu said.

"We will be on Nar Shaddaa, if you need us," Grievous informed them.

"Nar Shaddaa?" Padme asked.

"It's a hutt controlled world, a moon of Nal Hutta, the Hutts homeworld." Mace Windu answered.

"Why would you want to be there?" Padme questioned.

"One of the Hutt crimelords is offering to help us find a planet that we can live on freely, as long as we help protect his trade ships or freighters." Grievous answered.

"Is he trustworthy?" Padme posed yet another question.

"No crimelord yet has ever been trustworthy," Mace Windu said.

"Thats interesting, has there ever been a Hutt Jedi?" Padme asked, out of curiousity, butg chaning the subject.

"Not that I know of," Mace Windu shook his head.

"Only one, Hutt Jedi has there been, In my History," Yoda said. Mace looked over at him in surprise. "Beldorion. Lost he has been for over three hundred years."

"You've never mentioned him before." Mace Windu said.

"Never asked, you did," Yoda replied.

"That's interesting, I didn't think Hutt's could be Force sensitive." Padme said aloud.

"For now we could use Alderaan as our headquarters, indeed it is closer to Coruscant than Naboo, but Anakin is less likely to go to Alderaan." Bail Organa suggested, going back to the main topic of discussion.

"That's a good place to start, or Corellia." Garm Bel Iblis agreed.

"We will prepare to leave then, for Coruscant," Bail Organa said. He looked over at Padme. "Will you be coming with us, Senator?" Padme looked uncertain.

"It is too dangerous for you to stay on Naboo, Anakin will return sooner or later, and will find that something is wrong." Mon Mothma said. "It is much safer to travel with us."

"I will come with you then." Padme finally decided. "To Coruscant."


	9. A Slight Setback

Chapter 9 A Slight Setback

The _New Hope_ left Naboo behind, heading for Nar Shaddaa, with the _Tantive IV_ heading to Coruscant. Grievous was stood on the bridge along with his new crew member; Ahsoka Tano who was stood at her station, that was keeping her from getting bored and she was doing a better than the droid. Now that they had the extra supplies from Naboo, they desperately needed repairs to the _New Hope_ as well as new starfighters were needed to replace the old droid starfighters. _Maybe that Zedo willl give us parts to help with repairs or we could to a dealer there on Nar Shaddaa,_ Grievous thought to himself. He looked over his shoulder and saw Nute Gunray and San Hill walk onto the bridge. _I hope they have a good reason for being here,_ Grievous thought.

"Is there a problem?" Grievous asked them both sharply, not reallly wanting to deal with either of them for the moment.

"We thought you should know that we lost Poggle the Lesser from that when the Observation deck got attacked," San Hill told him.

_Ah, one less Separatist leader to deal with, _Grievous thought to himself. "What a shame. Well if thats all you needed to tell me, you may go." Grievous said, waving his right signalling them to clear off.

"Don't be rude to us," San Hill shot back.

"This is my ship!" Grievous clenched his right fist. Both San Hill and Nute Gunray took a step back.

"The observation deck needs repairing. The dead bodies need removing." Gunray said.

"Yes, It will get done." Grievous said. "We have been busy recently. If you want it so badly do it yourself."

"We shouldn't have to do slaves work," Gunray said.

"There are no slaves onboard this ship," Grievous replied sharply.

"No, but maybe you should think about getting some," Gunray argued.

"We will produce more droids when he have the chance," Grievous said. "Maybe you should do some work for a change."

"I'll pass on doing work thanks," Gunray said.

"We will produce some droids when we have the money and resources." San Hill said.

"Well that is all we had to say General," Gunray said. Both of them turned around and made their way off the bridge.

_Good riddance,_ Grievous thought to himself, as the two of them walked off the bridge.

"They are annoying aren't they?" Ahsoka asked.

"They have been for the past few years or so." Grievous said, agreeing with her. "It was only Count Dooku and his master who stopped me from killing them, especially Viceroy Nute Gunray."

* * *

Vader had decided to leave the child called Galen in his apartment with an imperial droid and human officer to watch over him for now, while Vader had set out for Murkhana. Vader himself was now making his way to the bridge of this Imperial Venator Class Star Destroyer, called the _Shadow_. Soon enough he arrived onto the bridge along with Captain Surge, a human officer.

"Set course for Murkhana in the Outer Rim Territories," Vader gave him the order.

"Yes my lord," Surge responded. He then gave the order to the crew on the bridge who set the co-ordinates for Murkhana. The Star Destroyer then went into lightspeed, it was going to be a long journey, but hopefully a short mission.

* * *

Palpatine was sat behind his desk in his office, on Coruscant. _We could do with some more imperial academies to replace the old Cloning facilities. Then we won't have to to rely on the clones as much as we used to during the Clone Wars. Soon enough we will be able to close down the Clone Facilities that I own across the galaxy, such as those on Kamino and the other ones spead across the Outer Rim Territories, _Palpatine thought to himself. He looked down at his desk, there were several datapads and datacards lying across the table. There were also some captured Jedi Holocrons that were on the table--the ones captured from the Jedi Temple. He was planning on writing his books, and he had already decided on the title--the Dark Side Compendium, which is going to be the name of the collection of books. _Before I can start writing, maybe I should pay a visit to the Sith Graveyard on Korriban, _Palpatine thought. He had yet to find out the contents of the Jedi Holocron--it seemed to be sealed an invisible shield of energy. He had also decided to write three books for his Compendium, the first one will be called the 'The Book of Anger'. Palpatine took out his commlink, and contacted Mas Amedda.

"Prepare me a ship to leave immediately," Palpatine said.

"Yes, your excellency," Mas Amedda said.

"Good," Palpatine said. Palpatine turned off the comlink, and put it back in his robes, as well as picking up the Jedi Holocron.

* * *

"So we're heading back to Nar Shaddaa then?" Barriss Offee asked Shaak Ti from the floor of a corridor on the Trade Federation Cruiser. There were other Jedi sat on the other side of the corridor, most were asleep apart from the odd one.

"It would appear so yes," Shaak Ti said.

"Could we actually go down and take a look at Nar Shaddaa for a break and a rest maybe?" A female Jedi who was sat on the other side of the corridor, called Caryn spoke up.

"Well of course you can," Shaak Ti replied. "I think everybody onboard could do with a proper break from all this travelling."

"I'll go and see how Ahsoka is doing on the bridge." Barriss said as she got up to her feet.

* * *

Vigorsh woke up suddenly, he had been waiting for the others to return, and had dozed off for a while. He was in one of the ships that were still onboard the cruiser, but the owners had forgotten to do a scan--and even if they had, they wouldn't have found anything as he had taken specialised drugs to lower his heart rate, and life readings. He got up to his feet, in the shuttle. He was plan B, just incase the initial team had failed to take the cruiser over by force--he was to detonate it from the inside. All he needed to do was to get to the engine room, and blow up the conducts as well as the hyperdrive motor. He picked up the detonators that were left here for him. Thankfully the hatch had been left open, and yet still no enimies had come into search them. He stepped outside of the shuttle while carrying the detonators in a rucksack, he saw several dead droids and a dead corpse. He walked over to the dead corpse, and picked up the dead warriors gun. He looked around for any hidden holocameras that might give away his position. Indeed he did see one up in the corner of a wall, he aimed and fired at it instantly, several sparks came flying out. Vigorsh rushed through the doors and out into the corridor. He continued to make his way to the engine room but he wasn't sure which way he was supposed to go. He could see a few corpses littered across the corridor--from his dead comrades. Because of the bright lights that lit up the corridors, he could see another camera up in the corner of the wall above the doors at the end of the corridor. He aimed at it and fired, sparks came flying out of it.

* * *

The _Shadow_ came out of hyperspace. The sandy blue planet looked large through the forward viewports, in Vader's eyes. There indeed was another Venator Class Star destroyer up in orbit over the planet, with the old red coloured style of the Old Republic rather than the all new grey style of the Empire.

"I will take my starfighter down into the atmosphere," Vader told Captain Surge. "I will contact you if I need reinforcements."

"Yes my lord," Surge nodded and bowed to his master.

"Good," Vader responded. Vader then strode off the bridge at a quick pace.

* * *

Barriss Offee came onto the bridge, finding Ahsoka stood at her station.

"Hello Ahsoka," Barriss greeted. Ahsoka turned to look at her and smiled.

"Hello Barriss," Ahsoka greeted her back.

"Hows it going?" Barriss asked, out

"I guess it is kinda fun working on the bridge," Ahsoka replied.

"Good," Barriss nodded in agreement.

* * *

Vigorsh desperately needed a map or some sort of layout of the ships, so he could find the engine rooms quicker--as so far he hadn't encounter any enimies. He looked on the walls of the corridors for any kind of map that would show where he was in relation to the engine rooms. The dead bodies of his comrades had stopped appearing meaning either the droids had cleared them up or they hadn't gotten very far at all. Things got worse suddenly when two armed droids came through the sliding doors at the end of corridor. Vigorsh rapidly aimed and fired with the gun he found, shooting down both droids before they had chance to report his presence. After the droids had gone down, he briefly saw that they had come out of an elevator. Vigorsh ran towards the elevator doors, stepping over the two dead droids. He stepped inside the elevator. Indeed there was another level or so apart from the one he was on, next to the switches to choose the different levels was a map of the layout of the ship.

* * *

Vader arrived in the atmosphere of Murkhana, he had recieved the co-ordinates of the last known area where the Clone Commandos were stationed on the planet, and had gotten them directly sent to his starfighter. Vader continued to fly across the planet, until he saw signs of a military base up ahead--but from this distance couldn't tell if it was a Clone Outpost. As he drew closer to it, he could see recognisable ships--such as Arc-170 starfighters, LAAT/i (Low Altitude Assault Transports) gunships that were used during the Clone Wars especially at the Battle of Geonosis were parked in the base camp.

"How long will it take to get to Nar Shaddaa then?" Barriss asked Ahsoka.

"Only a few more hours," Ahsoka answered. "At this rate."

"Oh not too long then," Barriss said. "When we arrive there I would like to go and visit the city, take a look around."

"Yes I will as well," Ahsoka agreed with her.

The Venator Class Star Destroyer called the _Penumbra_ came out of lightspeed, in the Korriban system. The _Penumbra _soon went into Korriban's orbit. Palpatine could see the large red desert planet of Korriban down below from his seat on the bridge. He got up from his seat and turned to Admiral Nubis, "I will leave now, I will return in an hour or so." Palpatine hissed.

"Yes my lord," Nubis bowed to His Excellency, as Palpatine stood up from his seat. Palpatine made his way off the bridge, and walked to the hangar bay.

Vader landed his starfighter in the base camp, the Clone Troopers awaited his arrival. Vader climbed out of the starfighter and marched towards the group of Clone Troopers who were stood waiting.

"Who is in charge here?" Vader demanded. "Before I arrived here."

"Clone Commando Jinsel," One of the Clone Troopers answered.

"Where is he now?" Vader asked.

"He is in one of the Military Barracks here in the base camp," The Clone Trooper answered.

"Take me to him, immediately," Vader ordered.

"Yes my lord," The Clone Trooper responded.

* * *

The shuttle landed on the desert planet of Korriban.

"Wait for my return," Palpatine told the pilot.

"Yes your excellency," The pilot replied.

Palpatine left the shuttle without bothering to say goodbye to the pilot nor the co-pilot, as that sort of trivial thing was beyond Palpatine at times.

* * *

After taking out several more cameras and security droids, not really finding any sentinent beings, Vigorsh came into the engine room onboard this cruiser. As soon as he stepped inside it, he scanned the room looking for a camera, and indeed saw one in the top left hand corner of the room. He shot it instantly with his gun, sparks flew out. Vigorsh rushed over to the large hyperdrive generator, kneeled down in front of it, putting the gun down beside him and taking off his rucksack. He opened up the rucksack and took out two of his detonators. He placed the detonators on the hyperdrive generator, and activated them both. He then had to move quickly, as he only had a few seconds till they would both go off, he picked up the gun and the rucksack, then rushed out of the room for cover.

Master Yoda was meditating in one of the compartments on board the _New Hope_ as he had been for most of the journey since arriving from Kashyyyk, with the occasional exception of going to the bridge here and there. He heard the large room's door open, and sensed Master Windu standing in the doorway. Yoda opened his eyes, as Mace Windu sat down in front of him crossing his legs.

"Have you discovered anything else?" Mace Windu asked him.

Yoda shook his head. "Hard to know what to find, it is," Yoda said. They both suddenly felt the ground beneath them shake violently.

"What was that?" Mace Windu asked, thinking aloud. "I don't sense any threats from outside the ship."

"But dropped out of lightspeed we did," Yoda said.

Grievous watched as the star lines came back as normal stars in the distance--meaning they had dropped out of lightspeed, as well as the alarms going off on the bridge. Grievous couldn't see any planets ahead of him.

"Why have we dropped out of lightspeed early?" Grievous demanded, but it was hard for others to him with the sounds of the alarms. The alarms finally went silent. Grievous repeated the question, as he turned around and glanced at everyone on the bridge.

"According to this scan," OOM 2X reported. "The hyperdrive has been damaged."

"How is that possible?!" Grievous demanded, growing more angry.

"Well thats what the computer says sir," OOM 2X reponded.

"But that means an enemy attacked us in lightspeed...." Ahsoka said, thinking aloud. "Thats not possible is it?"

"Not that i know of," Grievous shook his head. "Do a full scan of the ship, if its possible. Search for any other outside damage."

"Yes sir," OOM 2X said.

"What if the damage was caused from the inside?" Barriss Offee suggested.

"The inside?" Grievous asked. "You mean a saboteur onboard the ship."

"It is possible," Barriss Offee said.

"Fine, check the camera in the engine room, and any of the other cameras in the corridors that lead to the engine room." Grievous told Ahsoka.

"Yes General," Ahsoka said enthusiastically.

* * *

Vigorsh had done what he had been asked, to disable this ship, and make sure they would all die onboard. But he still had some detonators left in his rucksack, and disabling the hyperdrive generator won't ensure their death. But he had no way of knowing where the life support systems were found on this cruiser. He decided he could leave the remaining four detonators dotted about onboard the ship, and then escape the cruiser altogether by fleeing in one of the ships they had arrived in.

* * *

Cad Bane came back into the city of Nar Shaddaa after being allowed to leave the hospital. The sun was setting for the night, with the last of the light almost dissapearing beyond the clouds, beyond the Skyline. He had not yet heard anything from General Grievous and nothing yet from Zedo the Hutt, which seemed to be taking a long time for the General to return to Nar Shaddaa. Bane was now searching for a place to stay whether it be an apartment or hotel, while he waited for General Grievous to return to this world--which would hopefully be soon. _I have no intention of staying here longer than I should, but its a good place to hide from any enimies to be honest, with the huge amount of people living on this moon, which was well in the hundred millions. More than a lot of planets out there,_ Bane thought as he walked along this street. He looked at other aliens and humans that passed him by, some aliens were wearing suits--going to work maybe, while others were dressed in more casual clothes; there were some aliens who were alone like himself, or others in groups. After what seemed like hours of walking, he found a motel to stay at for the night at least. He read the sign above the entrance on the wall, it was called the _Bethul Hotel_ which was written in huge white joined up writing. Bane walked up to the door, and it opened sideways, it was a sliding door. He walked inside and found a male Twi'lek stood behind the reception desk. The Twi'lek had green skin, and was wearing a suit.

"Hello there," The Twi'lek greeted Bane. "Do you want a room to stay for the night?"

"Yes, I would indeed," Bane said. "Just for the night at least."

"Alright then," The Twi'lek said. "The name's Jural by the way."

"Alright then," Bane said, trying to cut out the idol chit chat the Twi'lek was about to start with introductions and all that. Jural then picked up one of the electronic cards from the large wall cabinet thing behind him. Jural led Bane down the corridor and out of the reception.

* * *

Palpatine walked along the desert, with every step his feet slightly sinking in the sand. The sun was shining down on him with its rays of heat waves, but Palpatine didn't think much of it, as his face was covered by his hood. Most people couldn't survive here very long without food, water and shelter, but it wasn't just the heat that drained people; the power of the darkside could also drain the weak, if someone was to actually go inside one of the temples. Palpatine was walking in the Valley of the Dark Lords that had been here on Korriban for centuries, where as the people who lived here on Korriban came and went--as there weren't anyone living here on Korriban at the moment, while there had been people living in the city of Dreshdae during the time of the Sith Academy in the Old Republic Era. There were at least six of the greatest Sith that were buried here in tombs; Marka Ragnos, Naga Sadow, Tulak Hord, Ajunta Pall, Ludo Kressh. and XoXaan. There had been other great Sith in the past who had died elsewhere such as Exar Kun, Freedon Nadd--who was buried on Dxun. Palpatine decided to visit Marka Ragnos' temple first and see if he would appear in Palpatine's presence. Palpatine began to walk up the stairs that led up to the great Sith Lord's burial tomb. From the foot of the stairs he thought he saw the outline of a figure stood at the entrance--but it could just be the heat of the desert getting to him, or more likely a Force Apparition or even possibly another person that was here.

* * *

The Clone Troopers took Vader to the Barracks. The barracks was quite a building that had been set up during the Clone Wars for military personnel to live in and eat. Before Vader went inside it, he turned to face the Clone troopers.

"Wait out here, while i deal with him," Vader ordered them.

"Yes my lord," One of the clone troopers spoke up.

"Yes of course, Lord Vader," One of the Clone Troopers replied.

Vader then opened the entrance door and went inside the barracks. It didn't take long to find the Clone Commando, because he was walking towards Lord Vader in the tiny hallway. The Clone Commando was wearing Kartarn-Class Commando armor. It was thicker than the ordinary clone armor, and it was a black green colour.

"Clone Commando Jinsel?" Vader asked.

"Yes, I am Clone Commando Jinsel." Clone Commando Jinsel responded, and came to a halt immediately, stopping a few feet away from Vader.

"Yes my lord," Vader corrected him.

"Yes my lord," Jinsel replied.

"The Emperor recieved a report here informing him that you have failed to carry out Order 66," Vader said, staring at the Clone Commando.

"Because the Jedi escaped," Jinsel told him. "We tried killing them but they escaped."

Vader fell silent for a moment, and tried to read this clone commando in the Force. And indeed he did find something.

"You lie." Vader said simply, starting to get angry. "Where are those Jedi?" Vader demanded, growing more and more impatient with the Clone Commando. "Answer me."

Clone Commando Jinsel was silent for a few seconds. "I befriended the two Jedi here. I let them go. I told the crew up on the _Starshield_--the Venator class star destroyer up in orbit not to attack them as they left the planet in a shuttle."

Vader was silent for a second, as he let all that information register in his mind. "You befriended the Jedi, that is treason. The Jedi have been outlawed. It looks as though its time for a change in leadership on this base."

"No," Jinsel disagreed. "How did you find out about this? I told everyone on this base camp not to inform the Chancellor."

But Vader didn't listen to his pleas for forgiveness, Vader raised his right hand and Force choked Jinsel, lifting him off the ground. He watched in pleasure as the Clone tried to ease his breathing by taking off his enormous helmet and throwing it down on the floor--revealing the face of Jango Fett once again. It didn't help him at all, he died in mid air. Vader let the Clone drop to the floor. He turned around and went back outside, where the Clone Troopers were waiting for Vader.

"There's been a change in leadership here," Vader told the Clone troopers. "Someone remove Jinsel's corpse from the barracks hallway."

"Yes sir," A Clone trooper took the order. He dashed past Vader and went inside the Barracks.

* * *

The _Tantive IV_ dropped out of lightspeed, and the planet Coruscant was in front of them--and drawing closer with every passing second. Even before they came into orbit over the planet they could see the countless amount of starships, shuttles, public transports entering and leaving the planets system, which wasn't odd or strange as it had always been like that.

"When we hit atmosphere we head for the Senate Building," Bail Organa said from behind the pilots in the cockpit.

"Yes senator Organa," One of the pilots said.

"General, the camera in the engine room doesn't seem to be working." Ahsoka informed Grievous.

"Ah ha, that means there is an intruder," Grievous said.

"Shall I send a battalion of droids down to patrol the area?" Ahsoka asked him, looking at him.

"No I will deal with this intruder myself." General Grievous said.

"Okay then," Ahsoka said, slightly surprised.

General Grievous strode of the bridge, at a quick speed, to find the intruder, and deal with him as he pleased.

"With the hyperdrive not working, what do we do now, Jedi?" OOM 2X asked, turning to look at Ahsoka who was still stood at her station.

"I'm not sure to be honest," Ahsoka said, shrugging her their whole journey now was slowing down, as they were floating through Space on sublight engines, but even so they weren't that close to Nar Shaddaa.

"What is going on?" The familiar voice of Master Windu.

Ahsoka turned to see the Jedi Master walk onto the bridge.

"Our hyperdrive has been damaged." Ahsoka answered. "There is an intruder onboard, who destroyed the cameras and destroyed the hyperdrive motor."

"Where are we then?" Mace Windu asked, walking closer to Ahsoka.

"We are near to Bothan Space," OOM 2X answered. "We would have to turn around however."

"Would we be able to reach it?" Mace demanded.

"Well yes, within a few hours," OOM 2X said.

Jural led Cad Bane down one of the corridors of the hotel. From what Bane had seen so far, it was a decent place, as the floors and walls were clean. Jural then stood outside a door to a room and opened it with the card, in a computer slot on the door. Bane saw a Bith couple come down the corridor towards them, heading to the bedroom opposite Bane's room, _how fantastic, neigbours or whatever,_ he thought. Jural stepped inside the room.

"Here we go sir," Jural said.

"Right," Bane said, as the Bith couple went into their own room.

Bane stepped into the large room. There was a door to his right that he found was the bathroom, ahead of him, was a chest of draws to his left, a double bed ahead of him, that was facing an enormous television, and a commlink on the table that would most likely be connected to the hotels network, so he could contact reception or room service etc. There was also two chairs tucked under the table. _Pretty basic if you ask me, _Bane thought to himself.

"This is obviously a basic room, as you're only staying one night, right?" Jural asked.

"Of course," Bane replied.

"Well I'll leave you to it then," Jural said. "You can contact me if you need anything."

"Right," Bane said again. "Close the door behind you."

"Yes sir," Jural left the room, closing the door behind him.

Vigorsh had returned to the hangar bay, and he had indeed placed detonators around the ship--only in the corridors that he had come through to come back to the hangar bay. He heard an explosion close by as he stepped into one of the shuttles they had arrived in. He closed the up the exit ramp and went into the cockpit. He sat down by the controls in the pilot seat, and turned on the engines.

"Master Jedi, our sensors are picking up a ship leaving in the hangar bay," OOM 2X said.

"We have sensors in there as well as cameras?" Ahsoka asked.

"Well of course we do," OOM 2X said.

"Is there a way of stopping it?" Mace Windu demanded.

"No not anymore," OOM 2X said. "It's already left the hangar bay."

Mace Windu sighed. "He was the intruder."

General Grievous continued to hurry his way to the hyperdrive generator, he wasn't far off though. He heard yet another explosion that was close by, followed by a third explosion, and then a fourth explosion. _Where is this intruder, or where are they?_, He thought. Grievous came to one of the corridors that led to the engine room was engulfed in flames--from the explosion whatever it was. But this corridor was the only direct route to the engine room. _I'll have to send a droid squad or something to clean it up, no sign of an intruder, _Grievous thought. He exited the corridor and the door closed behind him. _The door should have sealed the corridor off all together,_ He thought. He made his way back to the bridge, sligtly annoyed.

On his way back to the bridge, he met Master Yoda in the corridor along with another Jedi Master, a male Ongree, Master Coleman Kcaj.

"Master Yoda," Grievous said. "Master Kcaj."

"Intruder gone he has," Yoda said.

Grievous sighed. "Thats not really a problem anymore, the problem is we're lost in space."

"True, yes," Coleman Kcaj said.

"Come with you to the bridge we will," Yoda said. "Discuss what to do we will."

* * *

Palpatine arrived at the entrance of Marka Ragnos tomb. There was no one else here he could see. _It must have been a force apparition or force ghost that he had seen then, _he thought to himself. He walked to the entrance door and opened the door with a swing of the Force. Palpatine walked through the doorway, and entered the tomb. The tomb was dark indeed, and indeed it would be cold for any normal person, but Palpatine was no where close to being a normal person. Palpatine raised both hands into the air and summoned flame balls from both hands and aimed them towards the walls, and the fire balls went flying towards the walls, and they lit up a torch each on either side of the tomb, creating some light for Palpatine to see the fire balls hit the walls and fade away into small light flames that died almost instantly.

* * *

The _Tantive IV_ had landed in the hangar bay below the Senate building. Bail Organa and Garm Bel Iblis made their way towards the Senate Building. But they had noticed things had indeed drastically changed around here. There were soldiers on duty guarding the enormous entrance, some were Clone troopers--but they looked slightly differently than they did during the Clone Troopers. There were also human officers on duty. Bail Organa and Garm walked to the enormous entrance.

"What are your names senators?" One of the security officers asked, stepping in front of him, holding a datapad in his hands.

"Bail Organa, senator of Alderaan," Bail Organa told him.

"Garm Bel Iblis, senator of Corellia," Garm Bel Iblis responded.

"Ah yes of course, ive found your names listed," The officer said. "Welcome to the Imperial Senate."

"Of course." Bail Organa said.

"What is with all this new security then?" Garm Bel Iblis asked the officer.

"Apart of Imperial procedure now. We have stormtroopers and clone troopers stationed here." The security officer said.

"Stormtroopers?" Bail questioned him.

"The newest recruits into the Imperial Army. But thats not really your business. Move along." The security officer told him.

"Of course," Garm Bel Iblis said. "Well we'll leave you now." The security officer stepped out of their way, and the two of them made their way into the senate building.

* * *

Grievous, followed by Coleman Kcaj and Yoda came onto the bridge, and found Mace Windu stood with Barriss Offee and Ahsoka Tano at her station.

"The intruder escaped," Ahsoka Tano said.

"Yes, we were too slow at finding him." Grievous admitted.

"Now we must decide what to do," Coleman Kcaj said.

"We already have," Mace Windu said. "The closest system is the Bothan Sector. We have to turn around to head there for repairst."

"Do it then," Grievous said.

"We were awaiting your orders General," OOM 2X told him.

"Well we have to go there for repairs," Coleman Kcaj said. "This ship as it is won't last much longer."

"Unfortunately," Grievous said grimly.

* * *

Cad Bane was trying his best to sleep in this bed, but he heard two people's voices that kept waking him up. The two voices kept speaking, but Bane couldn't tell what they were talking about as it was slightly muffled voices. Bane finally decided this was enough, he picked up his blaster pistol by the side of his bed and got out of bed. He also picked up the e-card that he would need to get back into the room, if the door happened to lock shut with him still outside. Bane opened the door, and stepped outside. He couldn't see anyone in the corridor_. It must be those Bith couple in that other room_, he thought. He walked over to their bedroom door, and knocked onto the door with a clenched fist. No one responded, but the door itself slid open slightly. _The door had been left open,_ Bane noticed. Bane pushed the door open fully, the room was pitch black. He stepped inside, knowing fully he was braking an entry. He could only see glimpses of things from the corridor lights. He heard something move in front of him, and something else move behind him; it was too quick for Bane. He felt something smash against his head, twice. He saw the world go fuzzy in his eyes. He tried to reach out for something, the wall to get his balance back, but no a third bash cam crashing down on his head. He went tumbling down onto the ground. His eyes closed and the last thing he saw was an enormous alien head staring down at him, with beady black eyes.

* * *

Bail Organa and Garm Bel Iblis made their way through the Senate building. It looked similar to what it did a few months ago before the beginning of the Galactic Empire, apart from banners with new emblems obviously an imperial design. Something else occured to Garm that was slightly different.

"Haven't you noticed there are fewer aliens than there were before?" Garm whispered to Bail Organa.

"I had, but i hadn't thought anything of it," Bail said. They saw a group of humans dressed in robes who were obviously senators rather than their aides or interpretators etc.

"Excuse me," Garm approached them. "Have you seen Fang Zar recently?" The group of humans went quiet instantly. They turned to look at Bail Organa andGarm Bel Iblis.

"Don't speak his name," A female senator said. "He had been outlawed for trying to conspire against the Emperor. He had been excuted for it. A new senator has replaced him."

Both Bail and Garm were very shocked to hear this. "You sure it was Fang Zar of the Sern Sector?"

"Yes, i am his replacement. I am Nina Vash." The female senator introduced herself.

"Well nice to meet you and congratulations on becoming senator then." Bail Organa said, smiling at her briefly, and shaking her hand as did Garm Bel Iblis.

"Where is higness Emperor Palpatine then?" Garm Bel Iblis asked, cautiously, looking over his shoulder, and glancing down the corridor checking for spies, clones or officers.

"He is apparently off world, we're not told where though." Nina Vash said.

"Have you seen Senator Nee Alavar any where?" Bail Organa asked.

"My, you two seem to have a lot of questions," Nina Vash remarked, slightly frowning. "No I have not seen him for many weeks."

"What about senator Bana Breemu?" Bail Organa posed another question.

"I don't know her," Nina Vash shook her head. "I must go now. Nice meeting you." She turned around and rejoined the group of human senators. The group then walked down the corridor.

"We might over did it with the questions," Garm Bel Iblis said, looking at Bail Organa.

"Indeed," Bail said, shaking his head. "There are still other senators that could help us."

"Yes, but he will return sooner or later from his trip," Garm said. He used the term he, instead of Palpatine, because anytime his name was mentioned, people would be more likely to listen into their conversation. Bail caught onto this.

"Of course." Bail nodded in agreement. "Let's head to Nee Alavar's homeworld then. See if he's home." Garm nodded, but didn't say anything else.

* * *

"I hope this is only a small, minor setback," Grievous said, pacing around the bridge.

"We could do with hiring extra soldiers or mechanics who can repair the droids we have onboard," Ahsoka suggested. "The droids we've sent down there to put out the fires are doing it slowly, the battle droids aren't accustomed to using fire extinguishers."

"That could be useful," Barriss Offee agreed with her idea. "We could do with some astromech droids onboard."

"Yes, useful for repairing and helping to manage the ship when they're aren't any mechanics available." Coleman Kcaj said.

"Willing to help, someone will be," Yoda said. "But who, harder to see that is." Yoda turned around, and began to slowly make his way off the bridge, holding onto his gimmer stick.

"We will find someone on Bothawui who can help us." Mace Windu said.

"Who said it was Bothawui we were visiting?" Grievous asked. "There are many planets in the Bothan Sector, such as Krant, Kothlis, Mandell."

"True, but Bothawui makes the most sense though." Mace Windu said. "It isn't the closest too us, but it will probably be the most helpful."

"Bothawui it is then," Grievous said.

"Bothawui?" Ahsoka asked, no one in particular.

"Bothawui is the homeworld of the Bothan race." Coleman Kcaj spoke up first, answering the question. "It is a temperate world, with a population of over 2 billion. It remained neutral mostly during the Clone Wars. Many years ago the planet had been mined in areas for rare ores such as Lidium. It's a good place to visit for a holiday, good weather, with oceans."

"Ah, it sounds nice." Ahsoka said, remembering the

"Yes it is," Kcaj agreed with her. "We will most likely have plenty of time to visit the city of Drev'starn--the capital city, and many other cities of culture."


	10. Prophets of the Darkside 1

Chapter 10 The Prophets of the Darkside 1

Palpatine continued his exploration of Marka Ragnos tomb on the ancient Sith burial word of Korriban. He didn't sense anyone else on the planet apart from himself and the two pilots in the shuttle he had arrived in. There were animals here that were also consumed by the dark side of the Force that lived here, such as the Hssiss-which were a semi-sentient species that had the ability to influence Force sensitive beings around them, if one was bitten by one of the Hssiss one would succumb to the effects of a dark side poison . Palpatine eventually came into Marka Ragnos tomb itself. Using the Force itself ignited all the torches that were in the room instantly like Magic. Ahead of Palpatine, in the centre of the chamber was the enormous tomb of Marka Ragnos. Palpatine walked over to the tomb and kneeled down to his knees in front of the tomb.

"Lord Ragnos can you hear me?" Palpatine asked. "I need your guidance, Lord Ragnos." Palpatine closed his eyes, and felt the Dark Side energy radiating like a sun from this tomb alone. Marka Ragnos was one of the greatest Sith Lords of all time. The greatest Sith Lord of his age, of the old Sith Empire, which was about 5,000 or so BBY. Nothing happend, the tomb was silent. Palpatine tried to remain patient, to wait for the Dark Lord's appearance. If he would not appear, Palpatine would just go and see one of the other Sith Lords spirits here on Korriban, like Tulak Hord or Ludo Kressh.

"Lord Ragnos," Palpatine repeated, after a few moments silence. Still no reply. _Maybe the Dark Lord does not want to share his secrets,_ Palpatine thought to himself. The very thought brought a frown to Palpatine's face, starting to anger him. Palpatine raised both hands into the air, and lightning fired out. The blue streaks came streaking towards the tomb, the lightning blasted away the seal. Palpatine stared at the figure that rose before him. The shadowy spirit of Marka Ragnos stood before him. The Spirit had a blue crystal like colour to it.

"Marka Ragnos," Palpatine gave the ancient Sith Lord a slight bow. "You did not answer me."

"I wanted to see how powerful you were," Marka Ragnos said. "And indeed you are strong."

"Well I'm glad I passed your test," Palpatine said sharply. "Now help me." He demanded more fiercely, looking straight at the ghost of the Sith Lord.

"What is it you need Sith Lord?" The Sith Spirit asked.

"I want to further my knowledge of the Dark Side," Palpatine said. "and to learn how to become immortal."

"Ah, immortality." Marka Ragnos said, thinking aloud. "It is possible, Sith Lord."

"Thats what i thought." Palpatine said, nodding his head in agreement.

"A good start is defeating all the enimies that can stop you from achieving this," Marka Ragnos said.

"I have already defeated the Jedi," Palpatine said.

"Not all of them," Ragnos said. "There are other groups that are force sensitive that could be a threat, or some that could join you."

"Join me?" Palpatine asked.

"Yes some of them could be willing to join you as Inquisitors, or Assassins," Ragnos suggested. "Indeed there is a group we have learnt about called the Dark Force or also known as the Prophets of the Dark Side. Founded by Darth Millennial. Their temple is found on a planet called Dromund Kaas here in the old Sith space sector. They may be of use, in hunting down the Jedi you had failed to kill. Once that happens the Sith have finally won. Until then there is always a possibility that one of those Jedi will come back and challenge you."

"I will do that then," Palpatine said.

"Actually if you could seduce those Jedi to the darkside, and make them Dark Jedi or Acoylytes that would be useful." Ragnos said. "There are ways to cheat death, but obviously I do not know the full secrets of this myself. You could try using Clone Bodies, for your spirit to capture after you die. Empty clone bodies that is."

"Ah, I see," Palpatine said.

"Yes, you should do," Ragnos said.

"I will go then to Dromund Kaas to find these Prophets of the Darkside," Palpatine said. "And then I will have to have empty clone bodies created for me."

"Yes, that is right," Ragnos said. "You may comeback and ask. I may or may not help the next time."

* * *

Vader took over the base on Murkhana. He had then contacted the other Venator Class Star Destroyer that had been in orbit over the planet before Vader had even arrived. The Clone Commander appeared on a small hand held commlink that was in the right hand palm of Lord Vader. The Clone Commander was wearing phase II armour.

"Commander Nyrox," Vader said.

"Lord Vader," Commander Nyrox greeted.

"Were you the Clone Commander who contacted the Emperor of the Jedi?" Vader asked him.

"Yes i was," Commander Nyrox replied. "I was concerned of where this ship was going. So I commed the Commando down on the surface and he said it was allowed to leave, because he had befriended the Jedi onboard. He gave the command not to fire, so we followed his orders."

"You won't have to follow his orders anymore," Vader said.

"I see," Commander Nyrox said.

"Is it possible that you could've tracked where the ship went into hyperspace?" Vader asked him.

"Actually we did do that yes," Commander Nyrox replied. "Do you want the Co-ordinates?"

"Yes I do," Vader answered. Even though it would only be the Co-ordinates for the first planet they visited-if they had left that area or planet it could be anywhere else in the galaxy and Vader wouldn't be able to find their current location.

"The exact planet where they headed to from here is Phindar." Clone Commander Nyrox informed him.

"Phindar..." Vader repeated. "I've never heard of the planet."

"It's not far from here, near the Hydian Way." Commander Nyrox said.

"Set course for Phindar then." Vader said. _Phindar, that's a remote planet for the Jedi to choose to hide on, _Vader thought to himself.

"As you wish my Lord," Nyrox said.

"Inform the other destroyer of my return," Vader told him.

"Yes my lord," Nyrox said.

Vader then cut the message, putting away his comlink in his robe pocket.

* * *

Cad Bane could hear voices around, him before he opened his eyes. He kept his eyes closed, for the time being and his movement minimal. He felt he was sitting down on a chair, and his hands were tied behind his back. _So I'm a prisoner, _Bane thought to himself. Despite himself, he opened his eyes. He found himself in a room, with two Bith stood looking at him.

"Ah, our guest has finally awoken," One of the Bith spoke up. It was definitely male, with a deep voice. He was wearing casual clothes, a light blue top, a jacket with the zip done up and darker blue baggy trousers.

"Guest?" Bane repeated.

"Yes," Said the other Bith, with a high pitched female voice. She was slightly smaller in height than the male, which was common in some races. She was wearing pink shorts and a black jacket done up. "The name's Vicila."

"Mine's Edwin," The male Bith answered.

"May I just go ahead and ask why am I here?" Bane asked.

"Ah yes of course," Edwin replied. "You are because we want you to work for us."

"Work for you," Bane said, preparing to decline any offer they were going to make.

"Yes we know who you are," Edwin said. "You are Cad Bane, a bounty Hunter. You are closely tied with the Separatists of the Clone Wars."

"Ah," Bane said, sighing. "I see you've taken the time to catch up on your homework then."

* * *

"Well true in a way," Vicila said, scratching her head with her right hand. "We know that there is a bounty on your head along with the Separatist Leaders that was issued by Emperor Palpatine on Coruscant. So maybe you would be more inclined to work for us or we could just give you over to the Empire."

Bane took a deep breath and sighed. _There is no easy way out of this-at least for now, at least until Grievous returns whenever that will be,_ He thought to himself. "What kind of jobs would I actually be doing for you both?" He decided to ask them, just out of plain old curiousity.

"The usual, assassinations and that sort of stuff," Vicila answered.

"Assassinating who?" Bane bothered to ask.

"Rivals, and various other targets," Edwin answered. "Don't worry we will give you the information you need to carry out these missions."

"I see," Bane said. "Who is the first target then?"

"A crimelord called Lynros Mikat." Edwin answered. "We will show where he lives, just keep plain and simple."

"Will I be able to use my own weapons?" Bane asked.

"Use anything you want," Edwin said. "We will be going with you on this mission of course, got it?"

"Yes I understand, quite clearly" Bane replied.

"We will take you there now then." Vicila said. "You promise you won't struggle when we release you?"

"Of course I won't," Bane said.

* * *

The _New Hope _had finally come into Bothan Space, just passing Mandell and its moon Moonus Mandel. Mandell was a primitive world, with a lot of agriculture-at least thats what it looked like to Grievous on the bridge.

"Do you think there would be anything of use down on Mandell?" Ahsoka asked, from her station.

"No I don't think so," Grievous shook his head. "If there is we can always stop on the way out of here."

"That sounds like a plan," Ahsoka said. "You've got to just make sure sometimes."

"Indeed," Grievous said, still staring out into space. He could see the outline of a planet far ahead of them, which should be Bothawui. There were indeed other planets in the sector but they were spread out orbiting the main sun in the centre of the sector.

* * *

The _Tantive IV _came out of lightspeed. The planet Lorrd was ahead of them. From the cockpit, Padme could see it was a snowy planet-as she had never visited the planet Lorrd before now. Lorrd was close to the planet Bimmiel, which was also an icy, sandy desert planet. The Corellian Corvette soon came into the planet's orbit.

"Let's head down into the atmosphere," Bail Organa told the pilots.

"Yes Senator," The pilot responded from his seat, taking in the order as always, but not needing to turn to look at the Senator.

The Correllian Corvette came down into the planets atmopshere. It was a remarkable sight from up in the cockpit in Padme's eyes, there was an enormous city ahead of them-and the ones she could see were made with white stone or marble-possibly imported. Surrounding the city was mounds and mounds of snow, in fact it was snowing at this very moment in time because the snow flakes were trickling down on the viewports in the cockpit. There were few plants and trees in the snow, and from here there weren't many animals in sight-probably hibernating or non-existant altogether.

"How many cities are here on Lorrd?" Padme asked.

"About four main cities," The pilot answered. "The city ahead of us is Lorrd City the capital. Qatamer and Frezen are up in the north beyond the Mountain range."

"Looks like a harsh place to live," Padme commented. "Not repulsive or disgusting, just harsh."

"Yes, because of the climate," Mon Mothma agreed with her. "It can get very harsh here in winter, with storms. Many people who can afford it go on vacation during the winter season and return for the summer and spring season, which are moderately warmer."

* * *

Palpatine exited Marka Ragnos tomb, and walked down the stairs. He saw that figure, that spirit he had seen earlier, but now it was at the bottom of the stairs. It seemed as though the figure itself was looking up at Palpatine. He frowned, and made his way down the stairs, not once taking his eyes of the spirit. Even from this distance he could sense it was not Marka Ragnos spirit, as his spirit had a strong presence in the Force, and it was definitely not present at the foot of the stairs of his temple. He soon came to the bottom of the stairs, the spirit awaited for him.

"Ah, Sith Lord," The spirit said. The spirit was of the ancient Sith'ari or Sith species. The spirit like Marka Ragnos was a crystal blue colour, wearing the long robes and crown he had obviously worn when he had been alive, but now were also in ghost like form.

"Who are you?" Palpatine demanded.

"The Sith Lord known as Ludo Kressh," The spirit introduced himself. "I saw you earlier entering the tomb of Marka Ragnos. You sought his guidance?"

"Yes, for furthering my knowledge of the Darkside," Palpatine said. "Not that it is any of your business." He snapped.

"I see," Ludo Kressh said, thoughtful. "He will not give you all his secrets away, young Sith Lord. No Sith Lord will. Nor will I."

Palpatine had enough of this dead Sith Lord's pointless talk. He raised both of his hands and sent a charge of lightning at the Spirit. The lightning flashed through the spirit-because thats all he was a ghost.

"How dare you try to do that to me, Sith Lord!" Ludo Kressh exclaimed. Kressh gave Palpatine a hard stare, and then vanished with a blow of the wind.

* * *

Vicila and Edwin led Cad Bane out of the hotel room, and to the entrance with Jural-the Twi'lek receptionist stood behind the reception counter.

"Morning," Jural greeted the three of them as they came into the reception.

"Hello," Edwin said.

"Morning," Vicila said.

"Hello," Bane said, sounding less pleasant than either Edwin or Vicilia.

The three of them went out into the city. It was a cold and cloudy morning, with numerous aliens and people travelling about on the streets and walkways.

"Are you certain that this man will be at his house when we arrive?" Bane asked, as he continued to walk in between the couple-or business associates, whatever they were.

"Yes most likely, if not he will be off on business, " Edwin replied sharply, glancing at Bane.

"Why do you want this man dead?" Bane asked either of them, looking at either one, neither of them revealing any emotion in their faces.

"Like we said, he is a crimelord-" Vicila started.

"I know that," Bane interrupted her. "But what has he got to do with you two?"

"He is one of our rivals," Vicila said icily, glancing at Bane giving him a hard stare but wasn't good enough to get a reaction from Bane. "He rivals our own organisation for trade, and various other deals. He has in the past had some of our own members killed in various gang wars over the years, and assassinations. We have got him and his cronies back with sabotage and various other things."

"So why has it taken so long for you to do something about him then?" Bane asked her out of curiousity, keeping his voice quiet incase of eavesdroppers and various other agents or spies.

"We have in the past attempted assassinations on his life," Vicila answered quietly, glancing over her shoulder briefly. Thankfully there was no one in earshot of their conversation. "We were planning yet another assassination attempt. And by a stroke of luck a few days ago one of our agents saw you with General Grievous. We knew that this would be a window of opportunity. We personally would have preferred General Grievous to do this mission for us, but he seems to have left Nar Shaddaa."

"How would you know whether or not General Grievous has left Nar Shadaa?" Bane asked, without thinking about. _They must've been keeping an eye us as soon as we arrived in the city, _Bane thought to himself instantly.

"A few days before you arrived, the new Emperor Palpatine on the holonet gave out a public speech. He wanted to bring the Empire's enimies to justice. Which included you and that General Grievous." Vicila said. "A bounty for each of you, for treturning to the Emperor."

"I see," Bane said simply.

"Where is General Grievous?" Vicila asked curiously.

"He is away on business," Bane said, not offering to expand the answer.

"Will he be returning soon?" Vicila posed another question.

"Yes, i expect so," Bane said. "Why?"

"We could use his help with some other tasks." Vicila answered.

"I see," Bane said simply.

* * *

The _Tantive IV _had landed outside the city Lorrd towards the mountain, out on the snowy ground, so they would be able to hopefully avoid any of the Empire's spies that might already be in the city.

"I will go into the city to look for Senator Alavar," Bail Organa decided, informing the other senators of his plan, as they were sat in the conference room.

"We will wait for your return," Mon Mothma spoke up first.

"I will not be long," Bail said, glancing at each of the senators.

"Good luck," Garm Bel Iblis said.

Bail glanced at Garm and nodded in agreement. Without another word, Bail left the senators in the conference room, making sure his modified blaster and datapad were attached to his belt thing that went around his waist. Bail came down the ramp, and walked onto the snow. As soon as he came outside he felt the cold air on his face. He felt his feet sink slightly on the snowy ground. As he came away from the parked Corellian Corvette , and around it, he could soon see the city of Lorrd ahead of him.

* * *

The _New Hope_ had finally arrived in orbit over Bothawui. They were closeby to the enormous shipyard that orbited the planet, being a shipyard it was used to construct space ships of all kinds-cruisers, corvettes, destroyers and frigates. Not one of the best shipyards in the Galaxy but they got the job done here. Grievous looked down at the enormous lush planet of Bothawui, from up here he could see green as in the land, small bursts of white-the clouds and blue-the sea, a temperate planet. In terms of population it was minute compared to the vast population of Nar Shaddaa, with a population of around 3 billion. Grievous turned and glanced around the bridge, looking at some of the Jedi who were stood or sat on the bridge-in total there were only four, Ahsoka, Barriss Offee, Coleman Kcaj and Quinlan Vos. Some of the Jedi had brought chairs to sit on the bridge from other areas of the ship rather than just standing.

"Who along with me, wants to go down to the surface?" Grievous asked loudly across the bridge.

"I will come," Ahsoka spoke up first, with a little bit of excitement in her tone of voice.

"As will I," Barriss Offee said.

"Anyone else?" Grievous asked,

"No thankyou," Quinlan Vos declined his offer.

"I will pass on it for now, General," Kcaj said.

"Anyone who does want to go to the surface is welcome to take a shuttle down to the surface for a break. We will make contact with the ship before we return and make sure everyone is back on board before we leave." Grievous said. "You two," signalling at Coleman Kcaj and Quinlan Vos, "will be in charge for now."

"I accept this offer," Coleman Kcaj said, glancing at Vos who nodded in agreement.

"Good," Grievous said simply. "Let's go then." He said looking at the two Jedi, who both agreed with a nod of a head.

* * *

The two Venator class star destroyers arrived in orbit over the planet of Phindar. Vader stood on the bridge of the _Shadow_ overlooking the planet of Phindar. From what Vader could see it was mainly a green colour across the surface of the land signalling either forest like on Kashyyyk for instance or grassy plains like on Naboo. _Naboo_, he repeated in his mind, _I wonder how my children are doing, as well as Padme and Galen, _he thought to himself. He turned to Captain Surge, who was stood on the bridge behind Vader at attention-waiting for orders.

"Wipe this pitiful planet from the face of the galaxy," Vader said. "Give the order to the other cruiser as well."

"Yes my lord," Captain Surge bowed briefly to the Sith Lord. Captain Surge then relayed the order to the crew on the bridge, and then they relayed it to the on deck crew who were on duty at the turbolaser cannons to start firing at the planets surface. Surge then relayed the order to the other Venator class star destroyer.

Vader stood watching as the turbo laser batteries began firing turbo lasers down into the surface. Both Venator class star destroyers began their orbital bombardment of the planet. He stretched out into the Force, trying to find the Jedi that could be here on the planet. He felt the planet before him teeming with life, not many sentient species-indeed they did have cities down on the surface for people to live in, but there were also large amounts of non sentient species such as animals that lived on the planet as well. It felt good to watch this weak planet get destroyed so easily, he felt the innocents down there in the Force screaming out in pain, then fading away like a cloud dispersing in the sky. Vader could see from space the green of the surface starting to turn into a black colour-the colour of smoke rising into the air and red-obviously fire burning.

The two Venator class star destroyers slowly moved around the planet while in orbit, to bombard the other parts of the planet they could not from their original position. The bombardment continued until there was literally nothing but ash and fire remaining. After this Vader felt slightly satisfied with his success. He stretched out into the Force, and indeed this planet was now lifeless-no animals, no sentient beings of what sort, there would be some life left in the form of organisms but nothing else. The cities were now an inferno. _There is nothing else left here for me to do,_ Vader thought.

"Captain, tell the other Venator star destroyer to return to Murkhana, while we return to Coruscant." Vader ordered.

"Yes my lord," Captain Surge replied.

* * *

At the moment the three of them were in an abandoned house opposite to Lynros Mikat's house, looking through the windows at his house. From what Bane could see the house was very tall, more like a small skyscraper building, there were apartment blocks on either side of the large house. There was an air car parked at the front of the house as well as several trees that were planted about at the front of the house for decoration or whatever. The building was made out of durasteel, which obviously was a typical dark steel grey colour. There were two mercenaries standing at the front door of the house. The mercenaries were both Twi'leks, and both male.

"This is his house," Edwin said. He opened up his jacket revealing two blaster pistols that were holstered to his belt, he unclipped one of the blaster pistols that Bane recognised as his own. "You will need this."

"Indeed," Bane replied as he caught the gun casually in his right hand. "What about those guards?"

"We'll help you deal with them," Edwin said, as Vicila drew her own blaster that was holstered to her belt.

"Okay let's get this over with then," Vicila said. The three of them moved quickly, moving away from the windows and going outside through the side door, to avoid detection from the mercenaries. They rushed up to the front of the building, peering around the corner, they could see that the mercenaries were still stood at the house's entrance. The three of them were all holding their blaster pistols, preparing to move off, they had already checked they were loaded when they had arrived in the building. They moved quickly and silently out into the open, moving away from the building, and moving towards their target. When they got a clear view of the mercenaries, who were now aware of their presence, began firing at the two Twi'leks. Edwin fired several shots at the closest Twi'lek mercenary. The two mercenaries reacted instantly. They both dived to the ground drawing their own weapons from their holsters, they fired at their attackers. The three of them dived to the ground, moving behind the trees using them as cover. Bane stood behind one of the trees, peering around it, seeing one of the Twi'leks run towards the door of the house. The other Twi'lek spotted Bane peering around the tree instantly, he aimed and fired at Bane. Bane jerked his head around instantly, with the laser bolt firing aimlessly past the tree, missing him by a few centimeters. He heard more blaster fire He peered around the tree once again and saw the house's door was wide open. There was only one Twi'lek in view-the other must be inside the house. He He saw Vicila run towards the air car and kneel down behind it for cover.

"Move quickly," Edwin exclaimed.

Bane reacted instantly as did the other two. The three of them moved up the driveway and up towards the main door. They heard the alarm go off from the inside.

"It's this easy to get to his house," Bane remarked. "I expected there would be more guards than this."

"Change of plan we will get him together," Edwin said, not really listening to Bane's remark. "We will get him together."

"Right," Vicila said, just as the Twi'lek returned at the door holding a large repeating blaster rifle. He had taken them by slight surprise, as he aimed and fired at the nearest which was Vicila. Lasers streamed into her as Edwin and Bane returned the fire. Bane saw Vicila fall to her knees just as Edwin took out the second Twi'lek mercenary with a pretty acurrate headshot. As the second Twi'lek went down, Edwin walked over to Vicila and kneeled down beside her. She was still alive and not badly injured.

"He's obviously not here," Edwin said. He looked up at Bane. "Go turn that alarm off now."

"Indeed," Bane said. Bane spun around, and dashed over to the door of the house. He stepped over the dead body of the Twi'lek and went inside the house. He looked near the door for the device that controlled the alarm system for the door. At first he couldn't see one, but the door was still open-blocking part of the wall on his right hand side. Bane pushed the door too, but not all the way. And indeed it did reveal a small white box attached to the wall, with the keypad on display. The keypad had a small black computer screen with buttons below it, on the black screen it said "Alarm has been initiated". Thankfully it was written in basic, a lot of alarm systems came in all different languages to suit the owner itself. He spent a few moments studying the keypad. There were numbers in the centre of the keypad from 0-9, and by either side of the number pad there were command buttons. _You know what, why am I doing this,_ Bane thought to himself. He aimed his blaster pistol at the silly machine and fired several shots at it. The electronics were fried instantly, electric waves buzzing around it. However moments later the alarm finally died. _Ah, finally,_ Bane thought to himself. Bane opened the door, and walked into the doorway. He got a shock then. Edwin had his hands up in the air, as did Vicila, who were now stood in the drive way with about a dozen mercenaries stood around them wearing uniform of a sort. They were all armed with slug repeaters and blaster rifles.

"Get out of my house," A male human shouted, walking casually towards Bane. He wasn't dressed in uniform, but dressed in smart clothes as it were. Bane reluctantly came out into the open. "I'll deal with you now."

"Ah, so your Lynros Mikat then," Bane said in the same tone of voice.

"Well you should know, it was you breaking into my house," Lynros said sharply.

* * *

Grievous walked down the ramp of the shuttle in the spaceport on Bothawui, with the two young Jedi already stood waiting by the hangar bay door. He closed the ramp of the shuttle to with a flick of a switch on a remote and walked over to the Jedi.

"You ready?" Grievous asked them.

"Of course," Ahsoka said. "You took your time."

"I only came off a minute or so after you. You jumped off before we had even landed." Grievous said, slightly sarcastic.

"Not true," Ahsoka replied.

"Well let's get moving then," Barriss Offee said.

"Right," Ahsoka agreed.

The three of them made their way out of the hangar bay, and into the coridor. They came into the main terminal building that had signs and designated areas for public transport and private transport. They saw many aliens, droids and humans here in the building, some were solo and others in groups whether they are travelling as a family or friends. The three of them then eventually stepped outside passing the Spaceport security officers that stood on watch on the inside and outside of the building. As soon as they had come outside they felt the breeze of the air on their faces, gently brushing against their faces.

"Feels good to breath fresh air again," Barriss said.

"It's amazing,"Ahsoka said in awe. She hadn't set foot on a planet since Nar Shaddaa and that was...well ages ago. For Barriss Offee it was even longer since Felucia. She felt the planet, beaming with life, the city itself was full of life, everybody with their own stories and lives. She saw an air taxi land in front of them, two small human kids-one boy and a girl came out of the back carrying bags in their hands, the parents came out of the front. The man paid the taxi driver and the air taxi took off. Ahsoka could feel the excitement and anticipation of the kids through the Force-obviously they were looking forward to a holiday or trip. Ahsoka looked at one of the kids and smiled briefly, the girl returned the smile, the four of them made their way into the spaceport.

"We need to locate the nearest junk dealer or trader," Grievous said to them.

"Right," Barriss said, looking at Grievous.

"We could ask those officers, if they know anything," Ahsoka suggested, turning to look at the officers who stood at the entrance of the spaceport. She saw that two of the three officers kept glancing at them-especially Grievous, and they seemed slightly agitated about something. "Maybe not." She said turning away.

"Why not?" Grievous asked, looking at her rather than the officers.

"They seem to be agitated about something." Ahsoka said.

"Yes, I feel it as well." Barriss said.

"You're getting worked up over nothing." Grievous remarked, glancing at either Jedi. "Just ask them for directions to a dealer."

"If you say so," Barriss said. She turned and walked over to one of the security officers. There were two of the stood by the side of each other.

Grievous and Ahsoka turned to look at Barris and the officers while they waited.

"Do you know where the nearest junk dealer or trader is located?" Ahsoka asked either officer calmly.

"Yes there is one nearby," One of the officers responded. He was slightly smaller in height than his friend. "Head that way." He pointed in the direction past Grievous and Barriss Offee. "Keep heading that way until you come to the second right. Continue that way, through the city centre and eventually you will see a dealers called "Dorov's chop shop". That is one of them. If thats not open there is another one close by."

"Okay thanks." Ahsoka smiled at them, but they did not return it. Without further a second look at these officers, Ahsoka spun round and walked back over to Grievous and Barriss.

"Basically we follow this street-" Ahsoka started.

"-And take the second right turn," Grievous finished for her.

"Hey, you could've let me finished my sentence." Ahsoka said, putting her hands on her hips in a mocking stance, bringing a smile to Barriss Offee's face.

"I could've," Grievous agreed. "But I didn't. Let's go." The three of them left the spaceport behind.

As they were out of earshot the officer looked over at his friend, "Did you recognise the droid thing she was with?"

"Yeah, of course I did, Jon," The officer said. "General Grievous."

* * *

The _Penumbra_, the Venator class star destroyer, arrived at the planet Dromund Kaas. It was located in the same sector of space as Korriban, but it was still quite a long distance from here to Korriban though. Palpatine had left Korriban without incident, or meeting any those long dead Sith Lords of the Old order. They soon arrived in orbit over Dromund Kaas. From up here in space, Dromund Kaas looked like a very dark, and murky planet, the clouds-or whatever they were, were a dark grey colour with some being near black. Palpatine felt the planet was immersed in the Darkside of the Force, not as strong as the power he felt on Korriban, but still strong nevertheless. He turned and looked over at Admiral Nubis.

"Wait for my return," He told Nubis.

"Yes my lord," Nubis replied as Palpatine strode past him and off the bridge.

Soon enough Palpatine was sat behind the two pilots in the shuttle as they came down into the atmosphere of Dromund Kaas. From up in the shuttle, as they continued to fly around the planet, Palpatine saw an enormous temple ahead of them. That must be the temple where these darkside followers must live. The temple had enormous watch towers that seemed to surround the temple along with high walls.

"Land near that temple." Palpatine instructed the pilot.

"Yes your excellency," The pilot replied. The pilot did as he was told, and landed just outside the temple on soft ground.

"Wait for my return," Palpatine ordered the pilots.

Palpatine made his way off the shuttle and walked up towards the entrance of the temple. The entrance was grand, nevermind the temple; the entrance was an enormous electronic gate like door, that was guarded by two golden statuettes that were tall. The statues were motionless Sith statues that were carved to resemble a cloaked human figure of a sort. Beyond the entrance, on the walls either side were golden markings that were encraved on the walls. He walked up to the entrance. There was no way to look to see who was stood behind the door as there were no windows of any sort, but that didn't make any difference to Palpatine. Palpatine could sense the beings within the temple walls, though slightly clouded, which would hide their presence perfectly to most people including some of the most strongest Force users including the Jedi, but Palpatine was certainly not most people. He revealed his presence to them in the Force, although he realised someone was already coming to the door to open it-they must have sensed the presence of the two pilots in the shuttle outside. The temple's entrance gate opened up like an old fashioned castle, the gate opening upwards, moving up into the wall. Stood in the doorway was a male human being. He was dressed in black robes, his face was badly scarred.

"Ah, only a Sith would've been able to successfully find this planet," The man said.

"And who might you be?" Palpatine asked, in a neutral calm tone of voice.

"Steren Kane," The man answered.

"Are you the leader of this temple?" Palpatine asked

"No," Steren shook his head. "What is your business here?"

"Simply, instead of remaining of this world for eternity," Palpatine explained. "I want you to join my Empire."

"Ah I see," Steren Kane said. "I will take you to our leader."

"Good," Palpatine said, stepping through the temple doorway. The corridor before Palpatine was dimly lit, similar to the one he had just left on Korriban. There were two more statues in the corridor , not as large as the ones outside but they were still fairly impressive. He saw that this corridor led straight on, and to the left and right. Steren led Palpatine straight down the corridor, seeing other Prophets on the way.

* * *

Bail Organa came into the city of Lorrd. It was still snowing, not in a storm sort of way-but rather in a gracious, calm fashion. He made his way into the city centre, he noted that there were more humans here than alien races, but that was normal as Humans were the native species on this world. Bail contuned to make his way into the city. He soon. enough came to the Government's building, where the senators and governement officials gathered, the Governor lived in it though. The Government building was grand, even before you reached the building itself, you had to pass through a gate that was connected to a perimeter fence that went all the way around the building along with the gardens that were at the behind the building. Organa had seen the gardens before on his past visits here. Bail walked to the entrance gate. There were several human security guards stood at the gate, along with a protocol droid. Bail walked up to the gate.

"Hello, state your name, and your reason for visiting the Governor's house," One of the officers said, as Bail approached the gate.

"I am Senator Bail Organa," Bail Organa said, as he handed him his datapad.

"Ah, Senator Bail Organa, right," The officer said, after checking his datapad. "What's you purpose of your visit to the Governor's villa?"

"I came to see Senator Nee Alavar," Bail answered.

"Nee Alavar," The officer repeated. "I'm sorry, to inform you that Nee Alavar past away two days ago."

"Past away." Bail repeated, in surprise.

"Yes, she had been suffering from an illness, her body couldn't cope any longer." The officer said. "The funeral is tomorrow."

"I see," Bail said, taking a deep breath and a sigh.

"Senator Clax Corlin, has replaced her," The officer informed him.

"Oh right," Bail Organa said, sounding professional but inside he was slightly dissapointed. Indeed he was dissapointed, as Clax Corlin had been an diplomat and advisor previously, and had come to the senate building with Nee Alavar. Unlike Alavar, Corlin had been very for the Clone Wars, and didn't support the petition of 2000; he only went along with it because Alavar did.

* * *

Grievous, Barriss and Ahsoka came into Dorov's Chop Shop. They could see that the main room was littered in droids and various other parts. In the centre of the room there was the counter with a Human male stood behind it. There were other humans in the shop, some wearing the same scruffy uniform that the man behind the counter was wearing. There was also a back room beyond the counter with droids and what not.

"Ah, may i help you?" The man greeted his new customers. The man was wearing a scruffy outfit, blue overalls that were covered in black dirt, and grease. He had a name tag on his overalls 'Dorov'.

"Yes we are looking at hiring some mechanics to help fix our hyperdrive, as well as our droids." Grievous informed him.

"What ship is it?" Dorov asked him.

"A cruiser," Grievous answered. "We are also looking at purshasing an astromech droid."

"We could do with at least two General," Barriss spoke up.

Grievous looked around at her and nodded. "Two astromech droids."

"That can be done. It will cost you." Dorov said.

"What astromech models have you got in stock?" Grievous asked.

"I will show you them." Dorov said.

Ahsoka and Barriss had a look around as Dorov started showing Grievous the astromech droids he had for selling that were on display.

"Hmm." Ahsoka said, as she looked at one of the astromech droids. It had a sign on a pole next to it saying "R3-Series Astromech Droid, R3-A2" It was similar, very similar to the R2 series, which reminded Ahsoka of R2-D2. R3-A2 was painted with yellow rather than a dark blue colour. At the moment the droid was switched off.

"You seen something you like?" Barriss Offee asked, stopping, and turning around to look at Ahsoka.

"Yes, I think so," Ahsoka said. She looked over and called over one of the mechanics that were on duty. "How much does this droid cost?"

"Only two hundred republic credits," The mechanic said. "Or should i say 200 imperial credits."

"Oh thats cheap." Ahoska said. "You do still accept republic credits, right?"

"Yes of course, same thing really," The mechanic said.

"Could you turn it on?" Ahsoka asked the mechanic. "So I can see that it works."

"Yes," The mechanic stepped towards the astromech droid and flicked a switch on the back of the droids dome. The mechanic stepped away as the droid came to life. R3-A2 moved forwards on three legs that had small wheels attached to it-but they were hidden from view like R2-D2. R3-A2 looked over at Ahsoka and Barris, and the mechanic, with his large silver domed head, with the round light that was giving of a blue light, next to that was the normal holoprojector/recorder.

"He looks fine," Ahsoka said stepping closer towards the droid.

"You ready to pay then?" the Mechanic asked.

"Yes I am," Ahsoka answered affirmatively, turning to look at the mechanic, then back at R3-A2. "I'm your new owner." She said excitedly. The droid beeped loudly in acknowledgement.

"Right well, follow me to the counter," The mechanic said brightly.

"Right," Ahsoka agreed. She followed the mechanic to the counter, with R3-A2 following closely behind them.

"Interesting droid," Grievous said inspecting the R3 unit, as he came over to the counter with them. "I will pay for the droid, as a reward for working on the bridge, and putting up with all those mindless battle droids."

"Really?" Ahsoka asked, sounding excited and surprised in the tone of voice.

"Yes," Grievous said. He placed a hand in his robes and took out the credits and placed them on the counter, while the mechanic filled out the paper work from behind the counter.

"Ah yes, that's a good droid, up to date with everything," Durov said as he came around the counter.

"Very good," Grievous said. Suddenly Ahsoka felt a tingling sensation in the Force, it felt close by, it was like a shiver running up her back, it was warning her of danger. She looked around at Barriss Offee, who looked straight back at her. Ahoska saw Barriss open her mouth and said something-'i'll be back in a minute, wait here'. Barriss turned around and dashed over to the door, trying not to disturb any other customers or mechanics with her sudden alarm. Barriss went outside and into the street. She glanced up either street, looking in both directions, for the moment, everything seemed normal. There were civilians walking up and down the street. Then suddenly, she saw about a dozen human soldiers marching up the street, and they were coming right towards them.


	11. Prophets of the Darkside 2

Chapter 11 Prophets of the Darkside 2

With each passing day, the Empire grows stronger in everyway possible. Even in Palpatine's absence in the old Sith sector, the Empire grows bigger and stronger with more and more human soldiers being recruited into the Imperial Navy. More and more imperial academies are being constructed throughout the Empire, ranging from a whole host of different worlds such as the academy on Carida-however that had always been there but now it had been converted to a Stormtrooper training program. Their navy grows in number, with the new Imperial Star Destroyers being built at their shipyards, Kuat and Fondor. As soon as the Death Star was constructed they would have the most powerful weapon in the universe, as it was being constructed on the planet Despayre, which was a slave world in the Outer Rim Territories, Wilhuff Tarkin did have his secret laboratory in the Maw Installation in the Maw Cluster. With their enemies spread too thin and limited numbers, for the time being there doesn't seem to be much hope for the Galaxy, for the people who did fear the Empire.

* * *

The soldiers continued to make their way up the street. Barriss Offee turned around and dashed back inside the store. She rushed over to Ahsoka, R3-A2 and Grievous who were still at the counter. Next to Grievous was an R3 or R2 in a black colour.

"What was it?" Ahoska asked Barriss as she returned.

"We've got trouble, we have to leave now." Barriss said.

"What do you mean?" Ahosoka asked, as Grievous paid for the droid.

"There are soldiers heading right for us," Barriss Offee told her urgently.

"Let them come," Grievous said, after he finished signing the documents for both droids-as he had paid for both of them. He turned around and started to head to the door. Then he remembered. "Wait I nearly forgot to ask about hiring a few mechanics." Grievous said.

"Yes you can do that," Dorov said.

* * *

Barriss and Ahsoka were on alert. They sensed the soldiers were waiting in the centre of the street through the Force. Somehow they knew the Jedi were in this dealer's shop. The only people they had told was the security guard at the spaceport.

"Grievous," Barriss said, trying to hurry him on. They needed to return to their shuttle immediately, and leave the planet as soon as they had what they wanted.

"You still worried about those soldiers?" Grievous asked turning his head around to look at her.

"What soldiers?" Dorov asked, listening into their conversation.

"The one's that don't concern you," Grievous said sharply. "Now about those mechanics."

"Right, to hire one mechanic for an hour is only fifteen Republic or Imperial credits," Dorov said.

"Good, keep it like that." Grievous said sharply.

"How many would you like to hire?" Dorov asked.

"Two for now." Grievous said.

"Right," Dorov said. "We will need to know where your ship is stationed."

"We will take the mechanics up onto our ship," Grievous said. "For now I want to hire two mechanics."

"Right," Dorov said. "Jinn, Delin, come here!" He called out their names. Within a few seconds two more mechanics came into the main from one of the back rooms of the store. "Ah here you both are. This customer wants you to both do some repairs for his ship. What is it that needs doing again?" He asked Grievous.

"Repairs for the hyperdrive," Grievous explained. "It was damaged by a saboteur on the inside of the cruiser."

"I see," Dorov said. "You'll need to gather what tools you will need."

"Yes, we will do that now," Jinn said. The two mechanics turned around and went back out of the main room.

"These two will get the job done," Dorov said.

"That's good to hear," Grievous said.

Barriss Offee and Ahsoka Tano were still on guard, alert and aware.

* * *

Bail Organa returned to the Tantive IV. By now the snow had stopped falling. This mission was yet another failure, just like the mission to Coruscant. He came onboard the corvette, and walked down the main corridor, he heard the whailing and crying of infants, human babies. He went to the source of the sound. He soon found Padme in one of the smaller side rooms, holding one of her children in her arms, while the other one was lying down on a small matteress thing on the floor.

"You alright?" Bail asked her.

"Yes I'm okay thanks," Padme said, giving him a small, short smile. "Did you find Nee Alavar?"

"No," Bail Organa shook his head as Garm Bel Iblis came down the corridor and walked over to him. "I'm afraid Nee Alavar has passed away, from a disease apparently."

Both Padme and Garm Bel Iblis looked quite shock at this news.

"What do we do now?" Garm asked Bail.

"We will have to work something out." Bail Organa said, as he shook his head.

* * *

Steren Kane led Palpatine into what seemed to be a meeting room, it was an enormous chamber with a large oval table that was positioned in the centre of the table. There were several chairs that were positioned at the table, but at the moment only two of them were occupied. The two people in here turned to look at Palpatine.

"And who might you be?" One of the two, spoke with a deep, dark voice.

"Emperor Palpatine, Dark Lord of the Sith," Palpatine answered.

"Dark Lord of the Sith," The other man said repeated. "I see. The name's Cronal." The man introduced himself. He was wearing dark black robes, like what the Sith were normally associated with wearing.

"And my name is Virak. The Supreme Prophet." The other, slightly older man introduced himself also.

"Ah," Palpatine said. "Are you the leader of this temple then?"

"Yes I am," Virak said in a very proud manner.

* * *

Edwin, Vicila and Cad Bane had been taken to one of Lynros Mikat's other hideouts, and put in a cell there. They had been stripped of all their weapons and items that were probably kept somewhere in the hideout or had been thrown out all together. The three of them were locked away in seperate cells. Cad Bane was sat on a small, uncomfortable bed in this damp, dark, smelly cell. With nothing to do. One of Lynros mercenaries would come every day to bring them one meal and drink to last them twenty fours, till the next time they came back. Opposite his cell, was basically just several stacks of crates, nothing useful, unless there was something useful in the crates. But that was only a concern or a thought for when they got out of here.

"What do we do now?" Vicila's voice came loudly from the cell next door to his.

"We will have to wait," Edwin said, his loud voice coming from the other side of his cell. Bane's cell was in the middle of their cells. But they couldn't see each other because of the walls, but their voices still carried across the room.

"We could end up being here for days," Vicila said, complaining.

"Does anyone else know of the mission you made me come with you on?" Bane asked either of them.

"Yes of course," Edwin replied. "Our boss Aerien Vilsaa knows of our mission. We are supposed to be contacting him in an hour, to inform him of our success or failure as it were."

"Good, then we won't have long to wait." Bane replied.

* * *

Vader had returned to Coruscant, and was now making his way to the Emperor's office first, and then if he had no more missions for him would firstly go and see how Galen Marek was doing, and then secondly he was going to return to Naboo, to see Padme and his children.

Soon Vader came into his master's office. He saw that Mas Amedda was here in the office, but no sign of Palpatine.

"Where is Emperor Palpatine?" Vader asked.

"He is out on a mission at the moment," Mas Amedda said. "What is the status of your mission?"

"The Jedi escaped, the Clone Commando in charged let them escape," Vader answered, explaining the situation.

"I see," Amedda said, thinking very carefully. "His Excellency will want a full report."

"Yes of course." Vader replied.

* * *

The two mechanics came back into the main room, each carrying a large tool bag as well as a backpack.

"Ah here they are." Dorov said turning to look at them.

"Very good," Grievous said. "Let's get going then." He said. He looked over at his astromech droid. "Come along, R3-T4."

The black domed astromech droid, began moving, staying a few feet behind General Grievous. While the other astromech droid, R3-A2 was stood over with Ashoka Tano. Grievous and the two Jedi went outside into the street, with the two astromech droids and the two mechanics following closely behind.

"No sign of any soldiers," Ahsoka Tano said, as she glanced up and down the street.

"Let's head back to the starport then." Barriss Offee said.

* * *

Bail Organa and the other leaders, were sat around the table in the conference room on the Tantive IV.

"What are we going to do now?" Padme spoke up first.

"We still need to find other allies that will help us fight against the Empire." Mon Mothma said.

"Yes of course," Garm Bel Iblis said. "We need to find out what their most important military targets are, and pick them off. One by one."

"Yes, but how do we go about doing that?" Padme asked. "Like using spies perhaps?"

"Using spies, could be one way of going about it," Garm Bel Iblis said, glancing over at Padme. "For reconassiance, and intelligence."

"Yes it would work if we actually had a base of operations," Bail Organa said, thinking aloud.

"Finding a place shouldn't be too difficult," Garm said. "A planet that is far from Coruscant and the Emperor for now."

"A planet in the Mid Rim or Outer Rim perhaps?" Padme suggested.

"Yes that would be a wise option," Bail Organa said. "Though finding a suitable planet to live on might be difficult. One that the Emperor would least expect."

"Once we reunite with the Jedi, we could send out scouts to look for a temporary base, or a permanent base of operations." Padme said.

"Oh yes of course," Garm Bel Iblis said, nodding in agreement with her suggestion. "They are looking to relocate as well."

"We need more people dedicated to the cause." Bail Organa said.

"We need to keep looking." Garm said. "They are out there, in small groups most likely."

* * *

As General Grievous and the others approached the entrance to the starport, they saw that the security had suddenly increased. There were several soldiers and droids stood at the doors armed, along with the two security officers who were still there when they left. Some of the soldiers were human, but the majority were not surprisingly Bothan soldiers.

"I see that the security has increased," Grievous noted.

"Whats with all the soldiers?" One of the mechanics, who had introduced himself as Drian, while the other mechanic was called Brent. Brent was the slightly taller of the two of them, with shorter hair, while the other had long scraggily hair.

"I don't know," Brent said. "They must be looking for someone or some people."

_We just have to keep quiet, and try to remain inconspicious, _Ahsoka thought to herself as they approached the guards and officers.

"Ah, it's you lot again," The same security officer said, walking over to them. "It seems as though you managed to find what you were looking for."

"Yes thankyou," Grievous said.

"Excuse us," Barriss Offee said.

"Why, what's the hurry?" The officer asked.

_He's playing for time, _Ahsoka thought, she glanced at Barriss, who gave her the same look. She then glanced at Grievous, who seemed to be growing impatient.

"We would like to leave," Barriss Offee said, raising her hand in front of the officer.

"You can leave," The officer said. "But maybe you should get some lunch first."

"No, we don't want any lunch." Grievous said.

"I recommend you get some lunch, and take a look around the town." The officer said.

"Why are you eager to make us leave the spaceport?" Ahoska asked.

"Why are you lot in such a hurry to leave?" The officer shot back with a question, and ignored Ahoska's question.

"Shut up." Grievous said, with his impatience building up.

"How dare you talk to an officer like that!" One of the Soldiers piped up.

"I've had enough of this." Grievous said.

"So have I." The Officer said. "You're all going to be detained. Surrender immediately."

"I don't think so." Grievous said, and he placed both hands into his robes and took out two lightsabers, with in a split second he ignited them both. He spun them towards the head of the officer and decaptitated him instantly. The body dropped to the floor. But now the other soldiers had started firing at them. Ahsoka and Barriss ignited their lightsabers. Grievous raced towards the next soldier, just after he started firing his blaster rifle at the cyborg.

"Die!" The soldier shouted at the top of his lungs. Grievous sliced the gun in half, the man lost his balance slightly, trying to move away from Grievous. Grievous sliced him across the chest, piercing his flesh, burning his clothes in seconds.

Barriss Offee sent a Force Push towards two of the droids, sending them flying into the road. Other civilians and passerbys started to panic. Barriss tried to calm them down with the Force. Ahsoka cut down a droid, slicing it across the legs, with both parts of the droid falling to the ground in a heap.

Grievous sliced down two more soldiers, and thankfully that was the last of them.

"You're Jedi, aren't you," Brent said. "Firefek, you're on the run from the Emperor."

"Well done," Grievous said. "Let's get going.

Both astromech droids beeped, in surprise and awe of what they've just seen, as they rolled through the doors of the Starport.

* * *

"So tell me Emperor, why are you all the way out here?" Virak asked Palpatine.

"I want you to become apart of my new Inquistorial Squad. Where you have the highest ranking of all the dark side adepts of course. Where are free to solve crimes, hunt down enimies including Jedi, look for other potential Force sensitive children who can be trained." Palpatine said.

"I see," Virak said slowly, and seemed to be in deep thought. "And what if we don't accept your proposal?"

Palpatine took a few seconds to answer. "You will be instantly named enimies of the Empire. As you are a threat, just like the Jedi. You will be destroyed, and no one off this world will ever hear of you again. All your teachings, and everything you have worked on will be lost."

"I see," Virak said, still thinking. Though really he shouldn't have to think about it, as it was a win-lose situation. "Alright then we agree to your proposal."

"Good." Palpatine said. "I will send two cruisers to return here to pick you all up, and you will come to Coruscant."

"As you wish." Virak nodded.

"I will leave now." Palpatine announced.

"Very well then." Virak said.

* * *

Mace Windu along with several other Jedi masters were stood on the bridge with the battle droids stood at their stations.

"Master Jedi," One of the battle droids reported. "The Generals shuttle has just come out of atmosphere and is returning."

"Good, its about time." Mace Windu said.

"The shuttle is landing in the hangar bay." The battle droid reported.

They waited a few silent moments for General Grievous and the others to return to the bridge, and to sort out the repairs to the hyper drive. Soon enough Mace Windu could sense General Grievous, Ahsoka and Barriss Offee approaching the bridge. As expected the bridge doors opened. Grievous, Ahsoka, Barriss and two astromech droids came onto the bridge.

"I see you've bought some astromech droids," K'Kruhk commented.

"Yes," Grievous replied. "One of them is mine, and the other is Ahsokas. The repairs on the hyperdrive won't take too long, now that the fire is out. They can also repair some of the damage to the corridors as well. It will take some time though to complete."

"Right and then we can return to Nar Shaddaa." Mace Windu said.

"And start work for Zedo the Hutt," Quinlan Vos noted. "And pick up Cad Bane."

_Oh yes, Cad Bane, not heard from him for a while, _Grievous thought to himself.

Cad Bane was still sat in the cell, listening to Edwin and Vicila whine and complain about it all. They soon heard a door near them open, which meant that most likely one of Lynros workers were coming to bring them some food. The mercenary or whatever as expected brought them some food. He soon left after that.

"I wish they brought us more than just these small puny amounts." Edwin said.

_These two don't ever stop complaining, _Cad Bane thought to himself. He didn't even bother to eat himself, he didn't know what they put in it. It might contain toxins or something. Though he heard a sound of something, like a mini explosion of some sort. Then he heard blaster fire coming from outside. Soon he could hear screaming, and the sound of alarms. It sounded as though the whole hideout was under attack. "Finally." Bane muttered under his breath. Soon enough soldiers came into the cell room.

"Ah, free the prisoners," An unfamillar voice said.

"Aerien," Edwin said, with a huge sigh of relief.

"Good that you're still alive." Aerien said.

"Who's this other prisoner?" One of the soldiers asked.

"Cad Bane," Vicila answered. "He's working with us."

"Right let him out anyway." Aerien said.

Bane was slightly relieved when the cell opened, he got to his feet and walked outside the cell.

"Let's go then," Aerien said.

"We need to find our equipment first." Edwin countered.

"Do it, be quick." Aerien replied, looking at Edwin.

"Did you find Lynros Mikat?" Vicila asked.

"No," Aerien answered.

* * *

Bail Organa made his way to the bridge of the _Tantive IV_. As they were preparing to make their way to some of the Mid Rim, Inner Rim planets, Expansion Region and the Outer Rim were all possibilities. They had chosen a few planets, of other senators who had signed the Petition of 2000 against Chancellor/Emperor Palpatine. The planets they had chosen so far, to visit were; Onderon, Thyferra would be a good strategic planet to have for its bacta produce, Abregado-Rae, Dantooine, and a few other planets. Though some of them weren't homeworlds, but they could be used for temporary bases, such as Dantooine. While not many people knew of Dantooine, and Garm Bel Iblis had suggested it as he had found the planet in the Outer Rim by accident.

"We're heading to Onderon first," Bail told the pilot and the co-pilot.

"Yes, senator." The pilot replied.

"Good." Organa replied.

* * *

After Vader had given Mas Amedda a full report of his mission, and its failure. He returned to his apartment. He found the security detail that he had left there to watch over Galen Marek.

"He hasn't been much of a problem then?" Vader asked one of the security detail as he went into Galen's room.

"No, he's been fine," The officer replied.

Vader found Galen in his small cot bed thing. He felt the child awake at Vaders presence. Vader picked up Galen Marek, he felt the child's slight unease, and used the Force to calm him down.

"You have to stay here." Vader said. He put Galen back in the bed. He went out into the main room. "You will stay here until I return once more."

"Yes my Lord Vader," The security officer said.

"Good," Vader said.

"Where is it your going?" The security officer asked. "Incase the Emperor inquires on your whereabouts."

"Naboo," Vader answered.

"I see," The security officer replied.

* * *

Aerien Vilsaa, Edwin and Vicila had taken Cad Bane back to their headquarters somewhere on Nar Shaddaa. They were now sat in this man-Aerien's office. The office was rather large with purple coloured walls, an odd choice perhaps. There were various paintings hung the walls, some of giant castles, some of scenery. Aerien was sat behind a desk, that was very neatly kept, with a few datapads stacked, coasters for drinks etc.

"Your mission was a failure then," Aerien said shaking his head.

"I'm afraid so," Edwin replied, with a large sigh.

"Even with help," Aerien said, glancing at Bane. "One of the most notorious bounty hunters in the galaxy."

"What of it?" Bane asked.

"Nothing, these two seem to be incompetent." Aerien said. "They failed the last mission if you must know."

"That wasn't our fault either," Vicila said, starting to panic.

"Of course," Aerien said, not sounding very sincere. "You might be more effective, at dealing with our enimies." Looking at Cad Bane.

"Depends how much it would pay," Bane said. "How long the jobs will last as General Grievous should be returning soon."

"Ah, General Grievous might be willing to help." Aerien said. "With the right resources at his disposal."

"He's only got one cruiser left now," Bane said.

"Ah," Aerien said. "Most likely the Emperor had them shut down, am i right?"

"Yes, you are correct." Bane answered, nodding in agreement.

"What do you want us to do now then?" Edwin asked.

"I've not decided yet," Aerien said.

* * *

Palpatine returned to Coruscant after leaving Dromund Kaas in the Old Sith Sector. He would soon contacted Admiral Longbow, who should be on his Imperial Venator Class Star Destroyer called the _Imperator_, to order him to go to Dromund Kaas. As he would not risk losing his personal ship the _Penumbra_ in case of emergency. He took out his commlink and contacted his frequency number. Admiral Longbow appeared on the small commlink. He was a tall man with short dark hair, green eyes, wearing the smart new green uniform of the Imperial Navy, he had one or two scars that added to his slightly odd looking facial features. He had a very short pointed nose as well.

"Emperor Palpatine, your excellency," Admiral Longbow greeted.

"Admiral," Palpatine said. "I want you to go to the Old Sith Sector, to a planet called Dromund Kaas. There is an academy there. Go and pick up those people in the academy. Do not underestimate them. They are trained in the force."

"Yes your excellency," Admrial Longbow gave Palpatine a small bow. "What are the co-ordinates?"

"I will send them to you in a few minutes." Palpatine said.

"Okay then." Longbow replied. "I will go as quickly as i can then."

* * *

"For some reason the soldiers based their on Bothawui tried to stop us from escaping," Barriss Offee told Luminara Unduli. They were both standing in the corridor onboard the _New Hope_, waiting for the repairs to finish on the hyperdrive from the mechanics. Luminara was silent for a few seconds.

"Why do you think they did that then?" Luminara asked.

Barriss was silent for a few seconds. "Well they seemed to be playing for time. I expect they wanted to keep us there as hostages. They were going to arrest us. But Grievous took them by surprise and attacked them first."

"We will have to be more careful." Luminara Unduli said. "In the future and the present. Too many mistakes, too many risks may cost us all our lives."

"Yes but we didn't make a mistake." Barriss said. "If we hadn't fought and defeated them, we could've been put into prison cells now, until one of the Emperor's fleets came along and caught us all."

"That is a possible outcome of the events." Luminara agreed. "We must remain mindful of the Force."

"Yes master." Barriss Offee nodded in agreement.

* * *

The _Tantive IV_ dropped out of lightspeed. Bail Organa saw Onderon through the viewport in the cockpit. From here he could see starships up in orbit over Onderon, similar to Coruscant there were ships coming and going to the planet's atmosphere though less frequent. Onderon was the home of Senator Lagin Aquis, who had indeed signed the Petition of 2000. However Onderon was ruled by Monarchy, and had been for thousands of years, and it didn't seem to change. But they had been loyal to the Galactic Republic in recent years, but with the Clones Wars dragging on, they began to question Chancellor Palpatine's intentions. So perhaps they are willing to lend a hand against them. As they approached Onderon's orbit, Bail heard one of the alarms go off in the cockpit.

"Sir, we are being hailed from one of the ships in orbit over the planet." The pilot answered.

"Answer it," Bail Organa responded.

The Pilot flicked a switch and on a small screen up in the top corner of the cockpit a man dressed in uniform appeared. He was wearing dark blue uniform, and had several badges that he'd recieved on his shirt. From the screen he looked tall, but then again the angle could be deceptive. He had quite long blond hair, green eyes, long nose, a young looking face.

"Who are you and what is your business here?" The man asked in a rather surprisingly calm tone of voice.

"I am senator Bail Organa, of the Old Republic," Bail Organa answered, introducing himself.

"I see," The man replied. "the Old Republic." He repeated. "Does that mean you are not apart of the Empire?"

"No, I am not apart of the new Galactic Empire," Bail answered.

"So what is your business here, senator?" The man asked.

"I wish to speak to Senator Lagin Aquis," Bail answered.

"Ok then." The man nodded. "My name is Pedro Darton."

"Pleasure." Bail replied.

* * *

Grievous was stood on the bridge of the _New Hope,_ looking through the viewports onto the planet Bothawui. He wouldn't mind if he never saw this planet again in his life. The planet too him seemed rather boring, with not many places of interest, though he wasn't there for very long. Now he and everybody else on this cruiser were waiting for these mechanics to finish their repairs. But he was slightly concerned because of the soldiers that attacked them on Bothawui, he wasn't concerned in the way that they could've been dangerous-he easily took care of them, and could have easily taken on a lot more soldiers. What bothered him was the reason for wanting to keep them there on the planet in the first place. And since then he had seen no other suspicious activity from the planet or elsewhere for that matter.

"Will we be able to go soon?" Ahsoka asked, anyone in particular.

"Soon." Grievous answered, not turning to look at her. He gave her an indefinite answer, because he didn't know the exact amount of time it would take. He was still remaining very cautious as they clearly didn't have the resources to take on a fleet from the Galactic Empire, probably not even one single cruiser, considering the damage this one had taken over the past few battles. They had lost a few, if not nearly all their droid starfighters, not only that but the actual number of battle droids onboard was rather low; only a few hundred remaing along with a few hundred Jedi. But even they had taken a few losses recently.

"Keep an eye out on any suspicious activity." Grievous gave out the order.

"Yes Sir," OOM 2X said.

"Why what are we looking out for?" Ahsoka asked.

"Anything, something that stands out. Whether it be a small shuttle or a scout. Report it immediately. Just record any unusal activity." Grievous said.

"Yes sir," Ahsoka said.

"Good." Grievous said.

* * *

Vader dropped out of lightspeed in his one man starfighter, similar to the old republic style starfighters that those fools the Jedi used. He tried to reach out into the force, trying to sense Padme and his children down on the planet. He concentrated for several seconds but he couldn't feel them. How strange, he thought as he started to go down into the planet's atmosphere. As soon as he hit atmosphere, he flew at a fairly low altitude, looking out for the Theed Palace. He continued to fly to the palace. He saw the palace up ahead in the distance.

He landed his starfighter in the Theed Palace hangar bay, after he was given clearance to land. He saw Captain Typho and Captain Panaka waiting down below. He didn't remember seeing Panaka last time he visited. There were several other Royal soldiers with them. Vader opened up the cockpit of the starfighter, and jumped out using the Force for propulsion.

"Captain Panaka, Captain Typho," Vader greeted them both. "Where is Padme?"

"Padme," Typho repeated.

Vader sensed their unease in the Force. He sensed their hearts racing through the Force. "What is it?"

"Padme has gone, Anakin." Captain Panaka answered.

"What do you mean gone?" Vader demanded, growing very angry.

"She has left, with her children," Captain Typho answered.

"Since when did this happen?" Vader demanded, his face going rather red. His breath becoming deeper.

"It was soon after you left. Senator Bail Organa came and apparently she went off with him." Typho answered.

Vader could sense they were telling the truth; there was no deception in their words. "Did she say where they were going?"

"We didn't really speak to either of them when they left. They never mentioned it." Typho answered.

"So they could be anywhere." Vader said, shaking his head. His rage boiling. But he didn't know where to start looking. "Keep me informed if they return."

"We will do." Panaka said.

* * *

Bail Organa was still on the bridge of the _Tantive IV_ now talking to Senator Lagin Aquis, who appeared on screen after being put through from Pedro Darton. Senator Lagin Aquis was a male human. He was wearing long elegant, fancy red and white robes. He had white hair, and quite old looking face, well he was old to be honest, about sixty and onwards.

"Senator Organa," Lagin Aquis greeted.

"Senator Aquis," Bail returned with a short smile.

"I haven't see you senator for a while," Lagin Aquis said.

"Indeed," Bail said. "We have been searching for some of the senators that signed the petition of 2000. So far we've not been having much luck of late."

"And you were wondering whether I would join your cause." Lagin Aquis. "Well of course I will join you in this rebellion against the Empire. But first you should come down and discuss this over dinner. I can have the cooks prepare a great feast. And of course we will have to talk it over with the current ruler of Onderon, King Talmul."

"Of course," Bail nodded in agreement.

* * *

Palpatine was still sat at his desk in his office. He sensed Mas Amedda was approaching the room.

"Come in!" Palpatine called out. Within a few seconds, Mas Amedda came into the office.

"It appears as though your apprentice has gone to Naboo." Amedda reported.

"To see that wife of his." Palpatine finished. "She must be dealt with. He can't keep running around looking for her, and taking care of her." He exclaimed, anger building up in him. _He fell to the darkside because of her, because of his love for that conspiring senator from Naboo. But was it a full submission to the darkside? It would seem that a small amount of Anakin remains-as in his love for Padme. She has to go. She is of no use to the Empire, or the Darkside, and most importantly no use what so ever to the Sith,_ he thought to himself. _If she died because the Jedi or some other enemy we can make use of, that might unleash all the power inside of him, and the transformation will hopefully be complete._

"Should we arrange something to happen to her?" Amedda asked.

"We must make sure our contact can report the incident to make it more of an accident." Palpatine said.

"Yes your excellency." Amedda replied.

The journey from the Core, to the old Sith Sector took a long time to get there and back again. Admiral Longbow felt an enormous feeling of relief and satisfaction as he returned to Coruscant. He didn't really like being a ferry or taxi carrying other passengers about, especially when he knew nothing about them to be honest. This sort of mission didn't really require much use of the mind, nor intellect, he preferred missions that required strategy. But orders are orders, especially when they come directly from the Emperor. Hopefully his next mission would be one of more importance and interest to himself and his crew.


	12. The Drifting Ship

Chapter 12 The Drifting Ship

As soon as the Prophets of the Darkside had arrived on Coruscant, they began their training under Vader once he had returned to Coruscant, he had not really spoken to him much since he had gotten back as he had sent him off to train the Prophets of the Darkside at the academy. They had been sent to the most recent constructed academy here on Coruscant, or Imperial City as Palpatine preferred to call it. He had heard reports from some of his imperial spies that indeed some Jedi did survive Order 66, and some were apparently hiding on Coruscant, somewhere. Whether they were still here in the shadows, or gone elsewhere, remains to be seen. Palpatine heard his commlink go off, somebody was contacting him. He reached his hand out going across his desk and pulled it over to him. He answered it. He immediately realised who it was, it was the contact from Naboo.

"Your counterpart said you wanted to speak to me?" The figure said. He was cloaked, as if he was trying to remain hidden, from being seen.

"Yes," Palpatine said. "I want you to help arrange an accident to befall Senator Padme. She must be taken care of."

"Your Excellency," The figure said. "I'm afraid Padme has gone."

"What do you mean gone?" Palpatine demanded.

"Didn't your apprentice mention it?" the cloaked figure asked.

"Mention what?" Palpatine demanded, growing angrier with every passing second.

"Bail Organa, came a while ago and he took Padme with her." The figure reported.

"Senator Organa," Palpatine hissed his name. "If they return inform me at once. Have them both killed. They are traitors to the Galactic Empire."

"Yes your Excellency." The contact said. Then he ended the message.

_Why didn't Vader mention it when he had returned? _The question ran through his mind. He had not sensed anything from Vader when he had been in the room, apart from anger, and rage.

* * *

After the meeting with Aerien in his office, Cad Bane was allowed to stay at their headquarters in one of the guest rooms waiting for General Grievous return to Nar Shaddaa. It only then dawned on him to contact Zedo the Hutt, although he should be the one contacting us. He took out his commlink and contacted the crimelord, Zedo. Within a few moments, Zedo appeared as a small hologram in the commlink.

"Ah, Cad Bane," Zedo greeted. "Not heard a word from you for days."

"Sorry, I got caught up in the middle of something." Cad Bane said. "General Grievous should be returning from...Naboo soon." The planet had slipped Bane's mind, and thankfully he remembered it.

"Oh good. We've had a few delays recently because of those terrorist attacks. They've imposed a few more police patrol ships and what not. So we're just waiting for all the clear." Zedo said.

"Ah, right." Bane said. "I'll see you around then."

"Make sure you are ready for the next time the cargo ships leave with the spice." Zedo warned.

"We will be." Bane said, hoping it would be true.

"Good, I look forward to seeing results." Zedo said. Then the hologram disappeared.

* * *

It was now late evening; the _Tantive IV_ had landed on the ground just outside of the capital city Iziz. There would be some human officers looking after the ship, and Padme's children, C3-PO and R2-D2 were supposed to be doing that job.

"We always ending up doing these types of jobs, Artoo," C3-PO said to R2-D2, after Padme, Garm Bel Iblis, Bail Organa and Mon Mothma had left for their meal with Senator Lagin Aquis and the ruler King Tamul.

Artoo beeped affirmatively, but sounding slightly more positive.

"I know they are Padme's children, and the hopefully the future for us all." C3-PO said.

The four senators were escorted into the great palace on Iziz, from the royal guard. They came through the main double entrance doors that were grand in their own right, with golden handles, that went about seven or eight feet maybe even nine feet off the ground, swinging wide open, giving even the tallest of people being able to walk through the door and nowhere near the tops of the doors. But what was on the other side of the doors was absolutely stunning, they came into a huge grand entrance room, with corridors going straight on, to the left and to the right. In the intersection of the left and right corridors, were two huge golden statues—you could see them before you even came through the doorway. One golden statue was of an enormous eagle like creature and the other statue of all things, was a snake of some sort. The floors were carpeted in a dark red colour.

"Wow," Padme said in awe as the guards led them down the middle straight corridor.

They finally came to the end of the corridor with another set of doors in front of them. The doors opened revealing an enormous dining room, with an enormous long table in the middle of the room with many smaller round tables dotted around the room. There was a performing stage on the far side of the room. There were doors on either side, in the far corners of the room. There were two people sat at the table, one Bail Organa recognised as Senator Lagin Aquis, and the other was most likely the ruler of Onderon, King Tamul. There were human servants in the room, as well as security guards and droids on guard duty as precaution. The four senators were escorted to the table.

"Ah, my guests welcome to the Iziz Palace," King Tamul greeted, with a huge smile. He gave each senator a hand shake. They then took their seats at the table. Bail and the others could see that King Tamul was a lot younger than Lagin Aquis, with long brown hair, a young looking face, dark blue eyes, wearing the royal robes. He was wearing silvery white robes, with a strange hat type thing.

"Nice to meet you, King Tamul," Mon Mothma spoke first.

"Yes of course it is," Tamul said. "You can call me by my first name, Zen."

"Right, well obviously we here-" Lagin said, trying to move things along but was cut off.

"Ah, would any of you like any wine?" Zen Tamul asked.

"Yes please," Garm said.

"I'll pass on the wine thanks," Padme answered.

"Same here," Bail said.

"I'll have some though," Mon Mothma said.

"What about you Lagin?" Zen asked him.

"No thanks," Lagin said with a deep sigh. Zen called over one of the female waiters and asked her to get two bottles of the finest Onderonian wine that they had to offer. "Shall we get down to business then?"

"Yes, perhaps we should." Zen said. "What is it you have come to propose then?"

"So far we have been going around searching for people who want to take a stand against the Empire. So far we have been searching for senators who signed the Petition of 2000." Bail answered.

"We need to start up a network of different resistant groups, work together with different strategies." Garm Bel Iblis said.

"We are willing to co-operate with you, as we too have been hit rather hard. Though it may become slightly difficult as the Empire is placing regional governors in different sectors for rulers and government leaders to report too. To make sure everything is going correct. They apparently must be payed through our taxes, which means they go up slightly as well. The Imperial Governor is having a special house built for him out in the city. With imperial troops coming here, and stationing them here."

"So it will be hard to move around." Lagin Aquis said.

"For me it will." Zen said, his turn to sigh. "They will have their guards swarming all over the place."

"Which means, you will have to stay here, and stay in charge," Mon Mothma said.

* * *

Soon, after what had seemed to last for years on end, the two mechanics had finally finished the repairs. Grievous had then taken them back down to the surface and giving them a small tip on the way there. Grievous had dropped them off in the spaceport as quickly as he could and then went back into the space and returned to the _New Hope_. He was now on back on the bridge, and they were preparing to leave this planet and system, hopefully for good, as they say though...you never know.

"Set course for Nar Shaddaa," Grievous gave out the order.

"Yes General," OOM 2X responded. "We are set to go now." As the _New Hope _left Bothawui's orbit, it then soon went into lightspeed. Without any problems so far.

"Do you have any ships or troops that you could lend then? Or somewhere we could use as a base for now?" Garm Bel Iblis asked.

"Normally this would be difficult. But you're in luck, we do have a makeshift base up on one of our moons. Dxun has a base on it. For using the forest and training for soldiers. You may have seen it on your way here." Zen said.

"Oh," Bail said. Trying to recall when they did arrive.

"Well there's four moons that orbit Onderon, Dxun, Suthre, Evas and Daghri. We do have older mining facilities on them too, you might want to check them out. Though two of them aren't in use any more. It slips my mind which one is." Zen said.

"Right," Garm Bel Iblis said. "How are we going to keep in contact then?"

"Well im going to place Lagin Aquis and another man who has the highest military ranking in our army, General Vieran Teros." Zen said. "In charge of the resistance, but as far as the Empire is concerned, I have nothing to do with it."

"Then maybe it is best if your General and some of your best soldiers leave with us then." Garm Bel Iblis.

"That would be risky." Zen said, trying to decide what to do. "So much pressure. If I lose my best soldiers, and everything goes wrong here, we won't be able to fightback."

"The problem with that if you did try to fight back, the Emperor would send his best soldiers, you would be overwhelmed and forced into submission or imprisonment, slavery." Garm Bel Iblis said. "Death, torture."

"We know that." Lagin said.

"Do you have any allies anywhere?" Bail Organa said.

"We don't really," Zen said. "We don't have many enimies either apart from the Empire, and the usual, pirates, mercenaries, bounty hunters etc."

"The usual then," Garm Bel Iblis said.

"Well I'll contact General Teros after dinner," Lagin said. "And tell him to contact you, and you can ask him any questions about the army."

"That sounds good to me." Bail said.

* * *

Vader was stood in one of the many huge training rooms in the academy. Here in front of him were the Prophets of the Darkside adepts, but from now on they would be called the Imperial Inquisitorius or Inquisitors that would be the secret division of Imperial Intelligence, they would after their training report directly to Vader or even straight to Palpatine if the need call for it. He had two of the so called adepts stood in front of him. He needed to see if they were worthy and reliable enough to be in this academy. Whether or not they were strong enough.

"Only the strongest, most powerful survive," Vader said. "The ones who are weak will only try to pull you down, and aren't strong enough to fight."

Both of the adepts stood there, taking in everything he said. One of them was called Menance, and the other called Tenalis. Vader tried to read their emotions, they were showing none apart from anger, hate, and wanted to impress their new masters.

"You need to prove how strong you are," Vader said. "According to our intelligence, a Jedi named Jethir, survived order 66, and has been found to be hiding on the planet Byss. Byss is in the Deep Core, not too far from Coruscant. We have an imperial freight complex there, as well as a military base on the planet, and the Jedi there has been causing a few problems for them. Your task is to find him and his friends or allies, and either turn him to the darkside if possible or kill him." Vader said. "You may take one of our shuttles to Byss. The General in charge of our base on Byss is called General O'dor. You may work together. You may go now."

"Yes Lord Vader," Both of them gave their new master a bow.

"Use any weapon you can," Vader said, looking down at the weapons they had clipped to their belts. They both had a blaster pistols hanging from their belts along with a what looked like a lightsaber, but he knew it wasn't; it was a lightwhip. Much better for long range attacks, and clearly they had been using them at their academy on Dromund Kaas. _Then again isn't that what the blasters are for? _Vader thought to himself.

The two adepts then left the room, followed by Vader. Some of the other adepts were being trained by their own strongest leaders Cronal and Virak. Though they had yet to prove themselves in front of Vader, but he didn't underestimate them at all. When he read their emotions they were colder than the depths of wild space itself.

* * *

_So far everything was going well,_ Grievous thought to himself, as he stood there on the bridge. The old Trade Federation Cruiser was running well, engines fine, hyperdrive good. They still had enough life support, as well as food for the rest of their journey. He looked around at the bridge, all the droids were stood there at their stations keeping an eye on things as well as Ahsoka at her station with her brand new astromech droid, that kept an eye on their navigation and all that business. There were other Jedi on the bridge meditating away, and relaxing. _With all these Jedi onboard, I should buy something to keep at least some of them entertained, like a dejarik board or a set of cards so they could play sabacc, or a game of Pazaak._ Grievous considered, but then he thought,_Jedi might not want to gamble, you never know though_.

"No sign of any problems?" Grievous asked.

"No general," OOM 2X responded.

"Nope, all clear," Ahsoka said.

"Good," Grievous nodded in agreement.

The journey continued. _Some of the Jedi had been off this Cruiser since they left Coruscant,_ _how they can cope with that is rather baffling. Then again that dimwit Gunray has been on here longer, but he's just a pest._ Grievous thought to himself. The alarms suddenly went off. Then a second later, they dropped out of lightspeed, almost predictably, the ship jerking and rocking like a ship out at sea during a storm.

"What's going on?" Grievous demanded. "What's the status of the ship?"

"I'll just run a diagnostics," OOM 2X said.

"I don't know," Ahsoka said, as they were sitting ducks in space.

"Sir, the report says there's nothing wrong," OOM 2X said. "The hyperdrive is working fine. It will restart. The Engines are fine. Live Support is fine."

_Now this was a surprise,_ Grievous thought to himself. "Then why did we drop out of hyperspace?"

Everybody on the bridge went silent. They had no answer. Not even the astromech droids could think of a reason. Suddenly the alarms went off on the ship.

"What is it now?" Grievous demanded.

"Sir...there appears to be an object floating in space ahead."

"What where?" Grievous turned to look at the forward viewports, but could only see black, and light from the stars in the distance.

"Ahead of our position." OOM 2X said. "Sir it seems to be emitting some sort of force field. And some sort of frequency."

"You sure about that?" Grievous asked, still not seeing the ship or whatever it was. "We didn't see it when we last came."

"Maybe its just continiously drifting through space, so we would've missed it when we came." Ahsoka suggested.

"Possible," Grievous considered. "Let's just move forwards until we reach it. Is it showing any readings or signs of life?"

OOM2X checked on his display screen. "No it isn't."

Grievous could finally see the ship they had found, it looked rather large from up here on the bridge, maybe a small corvette or a light cruiser. It was moving at a very slow rate, like a tectonic plate on a planet.

"Does it have life support?" Grievous asked.

"Yes, it does," OOM 2X answered.

"Does it have a hangar bay?" Grievous asked.

"Yes," OOM 2X answered a second later, after checking his display.

"Let's get a team together then." Grievous said. "Oh, another question, can you scan it again to make sure, that there aren't any other chemicals in the air?"

"Yes," OOM 2X replied. It took him a few seconds, as the _New Hope_ scanned the unidentified cruiser. "The air onboard is made up of the normal compounds, Oxygen, Carbon Dioxide etc, no dangerous or harmful chemicals in the air."

"You will need to stay here, and in charge, in keep contact with us at all times," Grievous said, looking at Ahsoka.

"Yes Sir!" Ahsoka said affirmatively.

* * *

Cad Bane had been invited to have an evening meal with this man, Aerien, he didn't really trust him, even if for now he was being friendly; it could all change in a moments notice. If he ever crossed Bane, he wouldn't think twice about shooting him. Or if Zedo wanted him dead, he wouldn't mind at all—in fact he would take great pleasure in getting rid of him, if it helped Zedo the Hutt. But for now he was going to remain a guest at this base under his control. He came into the main hall room, of the base, there were small groups of people sat at small tables, and one large table in the middle of the room, where Aerien, Edwin and Vicila was sat at the table. There were a few other people sat at the table.

"Over here, my friend," Aerien waved him over.

Bane walked over to the table, and sat down at the last empty seat on the table.

"Ah this is the first time we've had a get together like this for a while," Aerien said.

_I wonder why that is, _the thought crossed Bane's mind, but thought he doesn't want to hear the trivial answer of it. Bane glanced around at the large number of waiters, some being droids and others being aliens or humans. "What would you all like to have to drink?"

Bane sighed, _this is going to be a long night_, he thought.

* * *

Grievous and his team that consisted of R3-T4, K'Kruhk, Jabidus Inspra-a human male Jedi Master and Dovish Grey-a human male Jedi Knight. The last three had decided to join Grievous on his exploration of his ship. He knew of K'Kruhk, and had fought him. But he had never met or spoken the other two Jedi until recently, they had come to him asking him what was going on, and he had indeed told them the truth and they had decided to come with him.

"Let's go," Grievous said, as he opened the exit ramp of the _Lapiz Cutter_, he climbed up the ramp first, and the others followed. He sat down in the pilots seat, with K'Kruhk taking the co-pilot seat. R3-T4 had to be locked by a restraining bolt, for take off and what not, so he wouldn't move about. The others sat in the passengers seat. Grievous powered up the engines, as soon as they got the clear from OOM 3C in charge of the hangar bay, they flew out of the hangar bay and out into space. They flew ahead of the _New Hope_ by a few meters. They could see the moving ship a fair few feet ahead, drifting off to the right, very slowly, as they had mentioned earlier.

"What do you think happened?" Dovish asked, no one in particular.

"Your guess is as good as mine." K'Kruhk said. "Can't make assumptions until we see what happened on it first."

They flew around the ship, tilll they arrived where the hangar bay was located. The hangar bay doors were unsurprisingly left open, suggesting that whoever was onboard left in a hurry, however the force field was still up-that protected the inside from the vacuum. As they flew down into the small hangar bay, firstly they noticed that the lighting was still on-so that goes in the theory of the power being still on. Secondly they saw that there weren't any other shuttles in the hangar bay, but there was something else. There were human and alien corpses, about eight of them on the ground, spread out. There were also parts of dead droids scattered across the ground.

"Oh my," Dovish said as he looked past K'Kruhk's shoulder. Grievous brought the _Lapiz Cutter_ down on the ground avoiding the dead bodies. As soon as the engines turned off, Grievous opened the exit ramp. They all got up from their seats, with Dovish and Jabidus Inspra getting off the shuttle first. Grievous released R3-T4 from his or its restraining bolt. After they had gotten off the shuttle, they walked over to the bodies. Grievous looked at their bodies, without touching them yet. Because the bodies were burnt, there were holes and burn marks in their clothes..as if it had been hit by acid or some sort of alkaline maybe. The dead aliens also had these marks too. There was blood on the ground as well.

"Can you do a scan of their bodies?" Grievous asked R3-T4.

R3-T4 beeped in agreement. He used one of his built in scanners, and scanned over one of the bodies. R3-T4 beeped something.

"Ah," Grievous said. "I could do with a datapad that translates what he said."

"Any datapad can do that," K'Kruhk said.

"Do any of you have one?" Grievous asked.

All of them shook their heads.

"Damn." Grievous said. He looked around but there was just scrap.

"Well it looks as though they were fighting each other," K'Kruhk said.

"Somebody might have gotten away." Dovish said. "Because of the hangar bay doors. No one would have opened them, unles they had a ship they could use."

"True." Jabidus said. "But its possible that somebody let the intruders on, from the inside. Opening the doors for them to come on. Which makes sense I guess, or they were trying to escape and left the doors open by accident, and the enemy came on board then."

"All possibilities. Another possibility is that the enemy were on board all ready." K'Kruhk said.

* * *

After their meal with King Tamul, he allowed them to stay in the palace till the morning as guests. There was enough rooms upstairs, either on the second or third floor. Senator Lagin Aquis, escorted them to the bedrooms.

"We will contact General Vieran Teros early in the morning," Lagin Aquis said.

"That will be good yes," Padme said.

"Thanks again for letting us stay," Mon Mothma said.

"Yes, but its not me thats letting you stay," Lagin Aquis said. "Thats down to King Tamul."

* * *

"What do you mean?" Dovish asked, K'Kruhk, not understanding what the older Jedi had meant by his last comment.

"Well, the crew could've taken the enemy onboard, maybe as prisoners or casualties. And they struck out when the crew made their mistake." K'Kruhk suggested.

"Let's move out of the hangar bay." Grievous said. They started to move towards the nearest door. Grievous tried to open the door but it wouldn't budge. It was tightly sealed. Grievous took out two of his lightsabers and ignited them. He thrust both of them through the door, and cut up and down forming a large rectangle shape in the shape of a door, that was big enough to fit all of them through. After he had finished cutting the door, he took out the lightsabers, and pushed the cut metal after he had put his lightsabers away. It fell down sharply with a loud bang. Grievous stepped over the metal slab and pushed it out the way, so it wasn't a problem for the others. Once again in this corridor, there was another littering of dead bodies, burn marks on the walls, blood on the ground.

"More," Jabidus said, shaking his head.

"Let's keep moving." Grievous said. "We need to get to the bridge, to find the logs, see if they left any sign of what happend."

"And find a way of stopping that magnetic field thing so that we can re-enter lightspeed," Jabidus added.

"Oh yes, that's right," Grievous said, that had left his mind already. They came to the end of the corridor, and once again the door had been sealed. "Odd that this door is also locked." He said as he took out his lightsabers again and ignited them. He cut through the door, slicing it in a downward motion, and then going back up and across to make the rectangular shape. He took out the lightsabers, and this time he kicked the metal slab down with his right foot. The metal slab fell down backwards and crashed on the floor. Grievous stepped through the doorway, and deactivated his lightsabers, and moved the slab to one side. In this corridor there were slightly less corpses etc, how warming.

They kept on moving, making their way through the cruiser. Going from one corridor to the next. It was time consuming, and they yet had no indication if they were heading towards the bridge, or the engine room at the back.

"They look like they've only died recently," Jabidus said, as he walked past another corpse. Suddenly he stopped, he sensed something on the ship, a disturbance in the Force. "Wait."

"What is it?" Grievous asked, turning around, and looked at Jabidus. He looked confused and puzzled. The other Jedi did as well. "What is it?"

"I sensed something, there's a disturbance in the Force." K'Kruhk said. "There's something evil at work here."

"There's nothing here, apart from us." Grievous said. _Let's just hope machines don't lie,_ Grievous thought to himself. "Let's keep moving." He took out his lightsabers, remaining cautious now.

Soon enough their patience was rewarded. As Grievous cut down the fifth or sixth door, it revealed the bridge, another load of corpses, and a droid. It was broken, but still together. Not like the other droids.

"A droid." Grievous said as they walked onto the bridge. Grievous looked at the droid, it was an old fashioned assassin droid, its light were out-he reasoned it might be an assassin droid because it was holding a blaster rifle. They made their way over to the navicomputer. From looking at the display screens, they looked as though they were still working.

"Do you think we would be able to fly this ship?" Dovish asked.

"I'm not sure." Jabidus said as Dovish recklessly punched a few buttons into the navicomputer, bringing up the captains log in the process.

"Careful." K'Kruhk warned. Suddenly his senses tingled once more. Something wasn't right about this ship...

* * *

The Imperial shuttle came down over the Imperial military base, on one of the many landing pads. They had seen a man dressed in green uniform, with several medals, obviously that was General O'dor, awaiting their arrival. There were also the Clone Troopers, other human officers and the brand new stormtroopers, that were slowly being introduced into the Imperial Army. On the other landing pads were two other shuttles and a few of the V-wing starfighters. There was also land vehicles based here, such as All Terrain Scout Transports (the walkers) and TX-130T Fighter tanks. Menance and Tenalis came down the ramp of the shuttle. They walked off the landing pad and walked over to General O'dor.

"Ah, greetings," General O'dor greeted them, without a smile on his face. His face emotionless and stern. "We have tried looking for the Jedi, but he or she continues to evade us."

"We will get it done, General." Menance said.

"Ah good." O'dor nodded, agreeing with him. "We can aid you if you need help."

"We will take it from here for now." Tenalis said.

_Ah, so they won't take the help when they need it, only when they're in dire desperation will they need aid,_ O'dor thought to himself.

"Let's get this hunt going then." Tenalis said, confidently. They made their way into the nearby forest, there were plateaus and mountains beyond that, and further up north there were several cities with huge population numbers. They had passed the cities on their way here, and flew out over the forest as the base was built rather secluded while Imperial Freight Complex was built much closer to one of the cities.

_We may need those other soldiers after all, _The thought crossed Menance's mind.

"Actually, you could do a survey of the forest here, while we head up into the nearest city for recon." Menance suggested.

"Of course," O'dor replied. _Ah so you do need our help, good thats what we're here for_, he thought to himself with some satisfaction.

* * *

His mind couldn't seem to grasp what was going on this ship, or what had happened. K'Kruhk felt that tingling sense again. He turned around and looked at the way they had just come. There was nothing stood in the doorway, no immediate danger.

"What is it?" Grievous asked, noticing his cautiousness.

"I'm not sure," K'Kruhk said. He turned around and looked at the log that Dovish had found by accident. The last record, was recorded only two days ago, but the earliest one was from about a month ago. Too far back. The second to last one was dated about three days ago.

"Open the third to last one," Grievous said. "Then go through to the last one, so it will make easy reading and flow properly." K'Kruhk opened the log by pressing on the screen, at the record he wanted. The screen changed, and was showing a diary entry, as expected. It was dated about four days ago. K'Kruhk read it aloud.

_Captains Log,_

_It's been four days since we fled our homeworld, when we attacked by those vicious creatures. We fear we might be the only ones left from Niros. But today we found this ship, that forced us out of lightspeed, it sent out this distress signal. They may have been sending out a magnetic field of some sort, we didn't think to check. We found travellers onboard the ship, their not from our homeworld, elsewhere. We don't know. We had decided to take them onboard as our guests because their ship was in a dire condition and they were going to all die. We don't understand or know who they are. They might be a problem. We were heading to Nar Shaddaa, as there are supposed to many job opportunities and places to live there. It's not Coruscant, but hey we can't complain. Apart from meeting those aliens, nothing else out of the ordinary.  
_Captain Argin Dean

"So they had picked up some travellers on their way," Jabidus said.

"I've never heard of the planet Niros," Dovish said, shaking his head.

"Go onto the next log." Grievous said.

"Right," K'Kruhk said. He went back and then selected the second to last log. He opened it.

_Captains Log,_

_It's been five days since we fled our homeworld. We seem to be encountering problems with our hyperdrive. We keep dropping out of lighspeed almost as if someone was tampering with it. But that was the least of our problems. One of the crew was found dead in his quarters, he had burn marks of some sort all over him. His whole face had been burnt of, as though it had been hit with acid. And now we've started having problems with our droids too. They've started malfunctioning, and losing control. We don't know what's going on. Our "guests" onboard don't seem to be in the slightest bit concerned of what's happening. They keep to themselves. Which is better i suppose. But hell it seems as though they've got something to hide. Some of my crew members are beginning to distrust sooner we get to Nar Shaddaa, the better it will be for everybody. Firefek, this is my ship, and even I don't understand whats going. Who or what killed one of my own crew.  
_Captain Argin Dean

"It seems they found a dead man with burn marks, the same ones we found on their corpses," Jabidus said.

"Still don't understand whats going on," Dovish said.

"Open the last log." Grievous said.

"As you wish," K'Kruhk said. The Jedi Master opened the third log.

_Captains Log,_

_It's been six days since we fled our homeworld. Yet another man has been murdered but this time we saw who did it. It was indeed our so called "guests". We recorded it from one of the onboard holocams. But now they know we know that they killed our fellow friend. We don't know who or what they are. It could've been our old enemy in disguise, but our latest discovery has put that theory out of the window, they seem to have a unique, supernatural ability, that is far more dangerous than any of the assassin droids we have onboard, in fact perhaps even two abilities that we've never seen before in the flesh. It's too late now. They will start killing us all off, one by one.  
_Captain Argin Dean

"The idiot didn't mention what ability," Grievous said.

"They're all dead now, right." Dovish said. "There aren't any more records after that."

"Have you found a way to turn off the magnetic field?" Jabidus asked.

"Looking for one." Grievous answered as he moved to yet another display screen.

"Maybe its best to turn off all the power." Dovish said. "And get off this ship as fast as we can."

Master Yoda was meditating in one of the small chambers onboard the _New Hope_. He had just felt yet another disturbance in the Force. He could feel it radiating from that corvette or cruiser..or whatever it was that General Grievous and a group of Jedi were investigating. Master Yoda got up from his current legs crossed seating position and opened the door and made his way to the bridge


	13. The Return to Nar Shaddaa

Chapter 13 The Return to Nar Shaddaa

Menance and Tenalis came into the nearest city on Byss, trying to find the Jedi. It was hard, to try and locate a single entity amongst thousands of other life forms that were here on the planet. There was a large diversity of different races living here in the city, so far they had seen Humans, Pau'ans, Gamorreans, Toydarians, which were the largest groups of immigrated species—as there supposedly were no native intelligent life forms here on Byss. There were also smaller groups of different species, such as Ithorians—they'd seen a few of them go by as they walked through the streets.

They kept their senses attuned as best they could to the Force.

General O'dor began sending out his squads to survey the Forest, using the AT-ST walkers and Tx-130 fighter tanks to use.

"Let's move out," He said to his personal squad of imperial soldiers.

"Yes General!" The soldiers replied affirmatively.

O'dor watched as the AT-ST walkers, and Tx-130 tanks make their way into the forest. He was clever enough to leave some Imperial officers behind with two remaining AT-ST walkers to stay and guard the base to make sure the Jedi didn't come here.

"Keep your eyes open," General O'dor said to his squad, while he was holding onto his rifle, with his right hand touching the trigger. He could hear the usual sounds of the forest, the trickling of water from the nearby stream, the sound of the birds in the trees, and various other animals. He could hear the casual, and nearby stomping on the ground that came from the AT-ST walkers.

* * *

"They are returning," Ahsoka said from looking at her display.

"Oh yes," OOM 2X acknowledged her statement, just as Master Yoda came onto the bridge.

"Returning are they?" Yoda asked.

"Yep," Ahsoka replied.

Yoda looked out through the viewport, and indeed he saw the _Lapiz Cutter_ returning to the _New Hope_. But it wasn't them on board the shuttle, it was other life forces, that Yoda had not sensed before.

* * *

It was now morning on Onderon. King Tamul's guests came down for breakfast. They found there was somebody else at the dinner table. He was a human male dressed in uniform, Bail Organa assumed it was that General Vieran Teros.

"Ah, good morning." King Tamul greeted.

"Good morning." Padme said, speaking first.

"Yes, it is," Mon Mothma said, smiling at the King.

"This is General Vieran Teros," King Tamul said.

"Hello, there Senators," Vieran greeted.

"Morning," Garm Bel Iblis said. "Nice to meet you."

"Well let's get down to business then," Vieran said. "Indeed we do have a few bases dotted about on different moons up in space around Onderon. There is some left over equipment."

"Will you be joining us to find allies against the Empire?" Bail Organa asked.

Vieran was quiet for a few moments, and then shook his head. "No. My place is here. We too will look for other allies. I will lend you a corvette that we have to spare, with a minimum crew compliment, and a captain in charge."

"You sure you want to do that?" Mon Mothma asked.  
"Yes I am sure," Vieran Teros said. "The corvette is called the '_Iziz'_, and it's up in orbit ready to go."

"Well thank you," Bail Organa said. "You don't mind if we would put one of our own men in charge on it?" He asked the General.

"Of course, do what you want with it," Vieran Teros said, nodding in agreement.

"Alright then," Garm Bel Iblis said. "I'll take command of the ship then."

"Yes, you may do that." Bail Organa said. "We will be on our way out of here soon."

* * *

"I've turned off the distress signal and the magnetic field." Grievous said at long last after looking at the display.

"Let's get moving then," K'Kruhk said. He felt it this time. No mistake. He felt the presence of the being stood in the doorway. K'Kruhk ignited his lightsaber, the other two Jedi followed in unison. Grievous turned around as well.

"Is there something there?" Grievous asked. He looked out towards the doorway but there was nothing there.

"It's moving." K'Kruhk warned.

Grievous instinctively took out his lightsabers and ignited them both. R3-T4 emitted some rather concerned and cautious beeps.

Suddenly, the being appeared. It had been cloaked... or something. It was a tall green skinned alien, humanoid like the ones they found of corpses outside in the corridors, it looked wounded and everything. It was armed with some sort of circular device. It threw it into the air. It came spinning through the air. K'Kruhk raised his free hand and caught it in mid air; he sent it back towards the alien—he dived out the way. But now a second alien appeared in the doorway. The circular device exploded against the wall splattering acid all over the wall and floor.

"Where are they coming from?" Dovish asked.

"I don't know," Jabidus shook his head.

"I could hazard a guess. You won't like it." K'Kruhk said. He glanced at Grievous who looked right back at him and nodded.

"Where? How did they hide from the scanners?" Dovish demanded.

"They were with us all the time." K'Kruhk answered.

"I don't get it." Dovish shook his head.

Grievous raced forwards brushing past R3-T4, nearly knocking him over in the process. The first alien came rushing towards Grievous as did the second alien. Grievous swung his lightsabers around in the air in front of him, slicing the first alien in half as it came into close quarters. The second alien tried to dodge out of the way, but Grievous lightsabers caught his ankles sending him tumbling down to the ground. Grievous walked over to him.

"Do you speak Basic?" Grievous asked.

The alien let out a noise that sounded like a sigh. But he didn't say anything.

"Can you speak Basic?" Grievous repeated the question. Grievous stepped closer to the alien creature thing; it went invisible again, disappearing from sight. "W-where?" Grievous raised his right foot and stomped right down with it onto the ground, he didn't feel any flesh. It had moved out of the away.

"Where has it gone?" Grievous asked. "Can you sense where he has gone?"

"Faintly, he's slowly making his way off the bridge," K'Kruhk said.

"Get him then." Grievous said.

"He's disappeared from the Force." Dovish said.

"How's that possible?" Grievous asked.

"It is possible for some creatures to block out the Force, some species like the Hutts, aren't affected by the Force." K'Kruhk said.

"Right," Dovish said. "Let's get off this ship now."

Grievous took out his commlink and contacted Ahsoka on the _New Hope_.

Ahsoka looked at the screen, and saw the shuttle touchdown in the hangar bay. The commlink beside her began beeping. She answered it. General Grievous appeared on the screen.

"We've managed to turn off the magnetic field that ship was giving off," Grievous said, giving her a short report. "We will be returning very shortly. We will give you a full report of what we found on board when we return." He informed them. There was a moment of silence.

"Wait. What." Ahsoka asked. "When you return? The _Lapiz Cutter_ just landed in the hangar bay a few moments ago."

"How is that possible?" Grievous demanded. "Take care of whoever stole our shuttle."

"Of course." Ahsoka said.

"Then bring it back to us." Grievous said. "We're about to turn off all the power."

"Yes, General." Ahsoka said. "Over and out." She then ended the message. "Wait we didn't sense anyone on board?"

"Remain hidden, they must've been," Master Yoda said, his eyes full of concern and wisdom. "Deal with this, I will."

"Okay then, Master," Ahsoka replied.

Master Yoda turned around and made his way of the bridge at his pace.

* * *

Garm Bel Iblis was stood on the bridge of his new corvette, called the _Iziz_. For the moment it was up in orbit over Onderon, near to the _Tantive IV_. He had his own set of crew that had been based down on Onderon. He had selected a new captain, second in command of the crew. He was called Captain Raynos. Garm Bel Iblis looked over at the captain; he was wearing smart red uniform, with one single badge of honour that was given to him for whatever reason.

"Captain," Bel Iblis called out to him.

"Sir?" Captain Raynos walked over to him.

"Are the crew ready to leave?" Bel Iblis asked.

"Yes Sir," Captain Raynos replied affirmatively.

"Good." Garm Bel Iblis said. "Dismissed."

Raynos gave him a salute and walked over to his duties.

* * *

Master Yoda came into the hangar bay. He sensed the danger, in the Force. These beings appeared in the physical form. They were armed with pike weapons. Master Yoda summoned his lightsaber in a flash, force jumped into the air, cut one down after the other, in a blinding flash of speed. After they died, the small but Ancient Jedi Master landed on the ground. He put is lightsaber away.

"Hmm." Yoda said to himself. He slowly made his way over to the _Lapiz Cutter_ and inspected it. He sensed no other beings on board or any other disturbances in the Force. He then turned around and made his way back to the bridge.

"Dealt with, they have been," Master Yoda said, as he came back onto the bridge.

"I'll fly the shuttle back to the ship to pick the others up," Quinlan Vos said.

"Good," Yoda replied, nodding in agreement, deep in thought.

Quinlan Vos dashed off the bridge in a hurry.

* * *

One of the alarms on the bridge of the _Iziz_ went off, signalling an incoming transmission.

"Answer it," Garm Bel Iblis said, as he walked over to one of the display screens. Bail Organa appeared on the screen. "Hello Senator Organa."

"Yes, and to you Senator Iblis, or should I say General now." Bail said, with a small smile.

"Perhaps," Bel Iblis said. "I have to earn that title though."

"True," Organa nodded in agreement.

"Where are we heading first?" Garm Bel Iblis asked, while he tried to recall if they had mentioned their first destination during their meeting yesterday.

"We are setting course for Commenor in the Rachuk System, in the Colonies Region." Bail Organa informed him. "That isn't too far from here. "

"Yes, that sounds like a good place to start recruiting other soldiers." Garm answered. "Is that all Senator?"

"Yes it is actually, for now." Bail replied. "I'll contact you again when we reach Commenor."

"Right," Bel Iblis nodded. "Over and out." And with that the screen went dead.

* * *

Azen Kraal was sat down on the cold floor, meditating deeply in the Force. He was trying to hide his presence on Byss from the Empire. Azen Kraal is a male Human, and also a Jedi Knight. He had come here to run away from the Empire and its armies. It was only after he had landed he realised, the planet had a military base of the Empire centred here on Byss.

Azen had originally returned to Coruscant with other Jedi Knights, after the end of the Clone Wars. They had returned to the Jedi Temple, only to find it in ruins, with no sign of any remaining Jedi. There had been a few remaining corpses, but the data from the holo recordings of the security cams, had been destroyed, along with all the data in the Archives. From what he and the other Jedi could tell, the Jedi Order had been eradicated over night, and destroyed all evidence of their existence. He and the others left the temple, and they found a squad of Clone Troopers and an officer waiting outside. They approached them to ask what had happened, but it didn't dawn on them then, that it must've been someone in complete control have ordered this rather than a small military group. This led to their down fall, the Clone Troopers shot down his companions. While Azen choose to flee. He ran like the wind, using all the Force he could to escape, rather than to fight. They had been searching for him ever since. He had fled the planet, moving to different planets. He had realised from watching the holonet that the Chancellor had declared himself Emperor, of his new Galactic Empire. He had gone to other nearby Core Worlds, and had soon arrived on Byss. But the problem for Kraal was that there was a military base of the Empire here. And of course, security had been very tight here, but soon Kraal had started raiding the military base for supplies and killing as many witnesses as he could. However of course he had drawn to much attention to himself, and now he was here lying low, for now at least in this old abandoned warehouse on the outskirts of the capital city. _Maybe it would be better to just leave now,_ Kraal thought to himself.

Kraal opened his eyes, and climbed up to his feet from his cross-legged position. He could sense a disturbance in the Force; it felt close by, a rippling in the Force. He wasn't too such what it meant, it maybe another Force User close by. If it was, things could get ugly, if he or she was particularly dangerous. Kraal made his way to his the exit, that were a set of double doors. He went outside, and immediately felt the breeze of the fresh air on his face. He could see the surrounding forest, filled with trees, and full of life, with animals—an equal balance of herbivores and carnivores. He turned, and walked around the back of the building, to the front, and saw the buildings of the city a mile or so away in the distance. Kraal put his hood up, as he began to walk to the city.

* * *

Quinlan Vos had just returned with General Grievous, the four other Jedi and R3-T4, parking the _Lapiz Cutter_, in the hangar bay of the _New Hope_. They made their way back to the bridge.

"Ah, it's good to see that everything is in one piece," Grievous remarked jokingly as he entered the bridge.

"Well of course it would," Ahsoka said.

"Set course for Nar Shaddaa," Grievous ordered, becoming his more usual serious self.

"Yes general," Ahsoka responded as one of the battle droids typed in their destination. Soon enough the _New Hope_ entered lightspeed. "Did you ever find out what the species was, that hijacked the shuttle?" She asked, looking at Grievous.

"We haven't done any research on them yet," Grievous said.

"Difficult it will be to find out, without the records in the achieves," Master Yoda said.

"Even so, I don't remember ever reading about such a species before," K'Kruhk replied.

"We can do research on the corpses we have onboard," Ahsoka suggested hopefully.

"True, but it's not important anymore. We won't meet them again." Grievous said.

"I guess so," Ahsoka replied, sounding a little disappointed.

"We could do, after we've found a new home," Quinlan Vos said slightly more enthusiastic.

* * *

The _Iziz _and the _Tantive IV_ were both currently in lightspeed, travelling to Commenor. Everything thankfully was going to plan. So far they had not encountered any spies or ships of the Galactic Empire. Hopefully their allies on Onderon would not give them away, and if they do, they'll hopefully be many parsecs away from the Onderon system. And the good news continued, as the corvette was in good shape, Life Support was working perfectly, sublight engines, hyperdrive motors, weapons array, were all working, as well as communications. Garm Bel Iblis had been concerned initially that was a pirate ship they had stolen—and fixed it with a mishmash of different parts but no this was an excellent working corvette. Though perhaps it was a little too quick to make a judgement of its capabilities, until it had been put through a real test.

* * *

Kraal made his way into the city. He soon blended into the mass of crowds of people that were passing through the streets, shopping and what not. He continued to use the crowd around him as a way of staying inconspicuous, as he made his way to the space port. He felt yet another disturbance in the Force, but it felt really strange, he stopped walking. To let the Force flow through him, he felt another shimmer in the Force. And now he realised what was going on; he realised that a Force user was reaching out to him, trying to locate Kraal. _I need to get off this planet now,_ Kraal realised, and the thought flashed through his mind.

He tried to hide his presence in the Force, whether it would work he would soon find out, as he started to sprint towards the Spaceport, it wasn't too far away; only a few street corners away. He turned right and headed down another street, flowing with civilians and droids. He felt the presence of his enemy, this force user catching up with him. The enemy was only a few meters away. Kraal kept on running, as fast as he could. But the Force user was gaining. Kraal used his right hand and unclipped his lightsaber and then came to a stop. He swirled around and ignited it. He saw the man dressed in black. He ignited his own weapon that extended much further than a normal lightsaber. It was a lightwhip! The man swung the red lightwhip towards Kraal's legs. Kraal jumped back, avoiding the strike only just. Kraal then sensed the presence of another Force user that had appeared—he or she was making her way to join their companion. Kraal hadn't even sensed him, or it might have been that second disturbance. Civilians around them had moved out of the way of the two combatants; while others had gathered to watch.

The Force user, the assassin or whatever he was, took a step towards Kraal. Kraal gathered his strength, using the Force. He sent a strong Force wave—a stronger variation of Force Push, straight at the assassin. The assassin went flying through the air, and landing in a heap, dropping his lightwhip in the process. Kraal felt the presence of the second assassin, come onto the scene. The man had barged his way through the crowd and stood next to his friend. Kraal turned to run, he ran down the street. He kept on running to make his way to the Spaceport. He felt the two assassins were hot on his trail again, not giving up at all, showing no obvious sign of weakness yet.

Kraal finally reached the spaceport, still holding his lightsaber in his right hand but not activated. He stopped short when he saw at the entrance were a dozen or more Clone Troopers, or at least what looked like Clone Troopers. _Damn,_ Kraal thought.

"There's nowhere else to run," Said a cold voice from behind.

Kraal also heard the hissing sounds of the lightwhip. Kraal turned around and ignited his lightsaber. It glowed a bright green colour, one of the popular blade colours of the Jedi Order.

"You are right," Kraal said as the two men, came charging at him, using their anger and hate as fuel.

Kraal parried the incoming strike of the first lightwhip, and pushed it away. He realised that he would be at an advantage when in close range, while they are clearly at an advantage when there is a good distance between them—because of the lightwhip. Kraal jumped a few feet back, to avoid the second lightwhip, as the two men began to circle their pray. Like real hunters or assassins as it were. Kraal saw one of the two men raise his hands, and he felt a Force surge that came right for his neck. Grabbing hold of his neck, it felt as though he was being strangled. Using what strength he had, he force tossed his lightsaber towards the Sith Assassin who was Force choking him. It made him let go of Kraal, as he dived to the side. But now Kraal was unarmed. He saw the assassin drop his lightwhip, as the second assassin closed in on the Jedi Knight. Kraal used his right hand and yanked his lightsaber, as it came flying back towards him. Kraal launched his lightsaber towards the second assassin's chest. It came flying towards him at a great speed. The assassin used the lightwhip to block the lightsaber; it sent it flying down onto the ground into the dirt. The other assassin rejoined the fight. He used the force to collect the Jedi's lightsaber, it landed right into his open hand.

"You've got a choice," One of the men said. "You can either join us, and become one of the Inquisitors or die here. You have no weapon. And no other way of getting off this planet."

"I see," Kraal replied.

"And you have to be interrogated." The other assassin put in.

"Why? What do you mean?" Kraal asked, slightly confused.

"How we answer, depends on what you choose right now." The assassin said, aggressively.

"I accept your terms. I will learn to use the dark side of the Force." Kraal said.

"I see," The assassin replied, his eyes narrowing in suspicion. He raised his hands and gathered his strength, using his hate and anger. He sent a blast of energy at Kraal. That hit him straight on in the face. His face started to bleed. "Good. If you ever try to deceive us, you won't walk again."

"I won't deceive you." Kraal said, honestly, as he got up off the ground.

* * *

The _Iziz _and the _Tantive IV _came out of lightspeed. They arrived in the Rachuk System. Bail Organa could see the planet of Commenor through the viewports in the cockpit. From up here the planet looked like a yellow-brown colour. The planet had two moons; Folor and Brelor. They couldn't see any space stations or orbital platforms, shipyards of any sort. There were satellites in orbit over the planet. The two ships came into the planet's orbit. The alarm in the cockpit went off.

"Incoming message from the planet," The captain informed Organa, although he already knew this to be honest.

"Answer it," Bail Organa responded affirmatively. On the small screen appeared a man dressed in formal robes. He had a sharp pointed beard, dark complexion, green eyes.

"Who are you?" The man demanded. "I am ambassador, U'lin Brathos, representative of Senator Darell."

"I am Senator Bail Organa," Bail Organa introduced himself.

"Who are you travelling with?" U'lin Brathos asked, calming down slightly. But he was still worked up about something.

"On board I am travelling with a crew of about thirty." Bail Organa answered, vaguely.

"What about the other ship that is with you?" U'lin Brathos asked, with his eyes full of suspicion.

"That is under the control of Senator Garm Bel Iblis," Bail answered.

"I see," U'lin Brathos paused for a moment. "What are you doing out here then? Do you wish to speak to Senator Darell?"

"Yes, I would indeed like to arrange a meeting with him." Bail said.

"I can arrange that yes; the only problem is he is off world at the moment." U'lin Brathos informed him.

"Where is he?" Bail asked, out of genuine curiosity.

"I'm sorry, but that information is classified." U'lin Brathos said, shaking his head.

"I see," Bail said, trying his best not to sound disappointed. This didn't come off his in his voice.

"He will be back soon though," U'lin Brathos said, trying to sound helpful.

"When will he back?" Bail questioned.

"He is due back in about a week's time," U'lin told him.

"I see, we can't stay around for that long." Bail told him, getting straight to the point. "We will return in a week's time."

"Are you sure you don't want to stay?" U'lin asked him.

"I'm very sure," Bail said, nodding his head. "Thank you very much for the offer. But we have other places to be."

"Okay then." U'lin said. "I will speak to you when you return, and inform Senator Darell when he also returns."

"Thank you, and goodbye." Bail said.

"Yes, good day to you." U'lin replied curtly, and then the screen went blank.

"Open up a transmission to the _Iziz_. We will be going to a new destination then." Bail informed them.

"Yes sir," The pilot responded, relaying his order.

* * *

At the moment Vader was still training the inquisitors on Coruscant. So that they would help track down the remaining Jedi that had survived Order 66. Not only that, as far as he was aware, the old Separatist leaders were still alive, and on the run. Vader desperately wanted to end their lives, for what they are, arrogant, pathetic beings, who hid behind the hundreds of battle droids they had created. Apart from General Grievous who did kill numerous Jedi, but he is a monster, that deserves to be destroyed along with them. He had no idea where they were, as well as Padme and his children. Though now he had the boy, Galen Marek to raise and train him into an assassin or Dark Side Adept, to help hunt down his master's enemies.

Vader stood in the chamber watching these two Dark Side users spar with each other. One was a Twi'lek female called Nilasha sparring with a Human Male called Brin. His master wasn't very fond of alien species, though there were a few did tolerate—he had allowed Senator Jar Jar Binks to return to Naboo, since he helped in his rise to power, and a few others. At the end of the day, though Vader was in charge of the Academy and training. It was about ability, technique and power rather than race and gender. He watched Nilasha's footwork; she leapt forwards using both feet, towards her opponent striking him with her lightsaber. He parried the strike with his own weapon. Vader watched as Nilasha pressed on. She thrust her lightsaber towards the man's chest; he brought his lightsaber up to block the strike, once again. Both blades clashed red on red. They were both using their physical strength as they pushed the blades towards each other. Just as they were fighting, Vader sensed something in the Force, it was like an explosion of the Force, something close by had happened. Both the adepts had a moment of confusion on their faces but the initial Force wave passed.

Nilasha broke the interlocking grip, taking a step back. She bent slightly and swung her lightsaber towards Brin's legs. Brin thrust his lightsaber downwards to block the attack. Brin used his free hand, and sent a Force push, sending Nilasha back a few feet, and landing on the ground, face down. Her lightsaber had dropped out of her hand. She slowly got to her feet, and picked up her lightsaber.

"You've both done well, your training for today is finished." Vader said, congratulating them. The three of them exited the chamber. The two Adepts made their way back to their quarters, while Vader left the academy.

Vader made his way back to his apartment. He took his own air speeder, and flew to the apartment block. Even from up here he could see that the whole building was on fire. There were the fire-fighter crews as well as paramedics and doctors outside. Along with civilians who were watching from the distance. He sensed that Galen was still alive, but it must've been him who had caused that Force explosion from before, because he's so young, his talent is still so raw, and the fire must've made him panic. Vader landed the air speeder near the medics Air Buses. He sensed that Galen was on one of the stretchers about to be loaded up onto the Air Bus. There were a few other stretchers for injured people. He could hear people screaming and crying all over. Vader walked over to the levitating stretcher that Galen was resting on. He was now asleep.

"What are you doing?" One of the nearby Officers asked, as he walked over to Vader.

"He is my child, he is under my care," Vader answered.

"Wait a minute, you're Vader aren't you?" The medic asked.

"Yes, correct," Vader answered. He looked past the medic, at the building; he saw that the building was covered in fire and smoke. There was shattered glass on the ground. "What happened here?"

"We believe that it was caused by an explosion, whether it was a terrorist attack, or something else we aren't sure yet." The officer answered, shaking his head.

Vader placed a hand over Galen, and gathered his strength in the Force with ease. And he sensed that Galen felt healthy, no obvious long term injuries. Galen was still too young to begin the training in the ways of the Force.

* * *

The _New Hope_ finally dropped out of lightspeed, in the Y'toub System, Nar Shaddaa. To General Grievous it felt like years since he had left Nar Shaddaa, though in reality it was only a couple of weeks ago.

"Try to contact Cad Bane," General Grievous said to Ahsoka.

"Yes general," Ahsoka complied. She worked hard at her controls for a few moments. While Grievous looked down through the viewports at the planet before him. This planet was a perfect hiding place for anyone, even someone strong in the Force could hide here, because it was filled with life to the brim. "He's responding." Ahsoka informed him. General Grievous walked over to her station. A few seconds later, Cad Bane appeared on the small commlink at her station.

"General Grievous." Cad Bane greeted. "It took you long enough to return from Naboo."

"There were complications," Grievous said, not bothering to explain them. "Where are you now?"

"At the moment, I'm still in the Red Sector." Bane answered.

"Good. Are you with Zedo the Hutt?" Grievous asked.

"No, I'm at this other person's hideout, called Aerien." Cad Bane explained.

"I see," Grievous said. "What are the co-ordinates?"

"I'll send them up to you now." Bane replied.

"We will pick you up in a few moments." Grievous told him.

"Finally." Bane sighed in relief. He then ended the message.

"Have you got the co-ordinates?" Grievous asked Ahsoka.

"Yes, they're here," Ahsoka said looking on the screen.

"Right, okay then," Grievous said, sounding slightly concerned. "I'll get a team together." He looked around the bridge at the Jedi who were present. There were a few present like Ahsoka, K'Kruhk, Shaak Ti, Coleman Kcaj, Barriss Offee, Jabidus and Dovish—the Jedi who came with him on their last mission. Most of them had remained quiet for most of the journey to be fair.

"Why would you need a team if it's a simple pick up mission?" Ahsoka, asked sharply.

"There's no such thing as a simple mission," Grievous countered.  
"I see," Ahsoka said, sounding and looking rather confused.

"We will go with you," Jabidus said, with his padawan Dovish.

"Alright, that's good," Grievous agreed with his decision. "Anyone else?"

"I will come too," Shaak Ti said.

"Good, we'll head out now then." Grievous said. "Look after the ship." He instructed Ahsoka and the other Jedi. Grievous took a readout of the co-ordinates on a small data chip to put in the console on the _Lapiz Cutter_. Then the three of them made their way off the bridge, taking only what they need with them—which was very little to be honest.

They came into the hangar bay; Grievous contacted the security droids that were on duty to open up the hangar bay ray shields. They boarded the _Lapiz Cutter_. Grievous sat down in the pilot's seat and started up the engines. Jabidus sat in the co-pilots seat, Shaak Ti and Dovish in the passenger seats. The shuttle lifted off the ground, and flew out of the hangar bay and into space. They flew over the huge Trade Federation Cruiser. They continued to fly down into Nar Shaddaa's atmosphere.

* * *

Azen Kraal was now sat in a small chamber, waiting to be interrogated by Darth Vader. He was sat at a desk bind to a chair with electro cuffs. The chamber was small and made out of stone, the walls were plain and boring; nothing on them, no designs, nothing what so ever of interest—almost like a prison. Except from this small desk and two chairs on either side of the table, were the only things in the room. For the time being it was silent, Kraal could just about hear his own breath. He waited for a few moments, until he heard the chamber door swing open. Darth Vader preferred not to sit down.

"So, you want to become one of the Inquisitors?" Vader demanded, squaring up to the Jedi.

"Yes," Azen answered.

Vader opened up to the Force, letting through every part of his body. He let his hate and rage fuel him, fuel his energy. He could feel the other man's fear—he feared Vader, he feared Vader's power and strength. Vader raised his right hand, and begun to invade the man's head using the sheer power of the Force. An invisible force wave continued to attack the man's brain; it wasn't enough power to kill him, only to drive him mad. Vader could see the man's mind, as in his fears and worst nightmares. The man, Azen, began screaming for his life.

"Stop! Please stop it." Azen shouted at the top of his lungs.

"Shouting won't save you." Vader said to try taunt him. Vader continued this invisible attack on the Jedi's mind.

"Stop it!" Azen raised his hand and sent Vader a Force Push, sending the Dark Lord off balance, and throwing him back a few meters. This made Vader lose his concentration on the attack of his mind.

"You've started your training," Vader told him as he got up off the floor. "Sith training. Though you will only learn the basics of the Dark side of the Force, you will never know the true secrets of the Dark Side of the Force."

* * *

They were at the moment flying high up in the air, rather high up in terms of distance to the tops of the highest skycrapers, heading to the co-ordinates they had been given from Cad Bane.

"Well, let's hope we will be able to find a new home soon," Shaak Ti remarked, sounding hopeful, not too emotional.

"We will do," Grievous said. "These Crime lords, seem to know a lot of uncharted planets that are used for their operations, and hideouts."

"Yes, that is true," Jabidus agreed with him, nodding his head.

"Ah, we're nearly there now." Grievous commented, as he glanced at the small computer screen. He looked out of the shuttle, and could see that they were heading towards the outskirts, were it was rough, and indeed some of the crime lords lived there, and others lived in the city centre. They arrived over the co-ordinates, that Bane had given him. From up here in the sky, the building looked bigger than the surrounding buildings, with a very large courtyard, and a second building was joined onto it. Grievous could just about see some people coming out onto the court yard, hopefully preparing for their arrival.

"Can you sense their intentions?" Grievous asked the Jedi as he brought the shuttle down to the ground, slowly and smoothly. Both Jedi Masters reached out into the Force, closing their eyes.

"They seem agitated about something," Jabidus said as the _Lapiz Cutter_ touched the ground.

"Cad Bane is with them, he seems calm." Shaak Ti added.

"I see," Grievous replied.

"But there is something else. Within the huge building in front of us. There is something irradiating from inside the building." Shaak Ti tried to explain.

"Like what?" Grievous asked, trying to be direct.

"It feels like more than one presence," Shaak Ti answered, trying hard to focus on this single thing, they hadn't felt before. "They feel trapped. I don't really know how else to describe it."

"You mean like prisoners?" Grievous questioned.

"Sort of yes, it feels strong, and yet distant at the same time." Shaak Ti said.

"I can feel it as well," Jabidus piped up.

"What! I can't." Dovish sounded disappointed.

"We can discuss this later, let's get this over with." Grievous said.

He could see Cad Bane with some humans outside through the cockpit. As well as the building they had come from. The three of them got up from their seats and opened the exit ramp.

"General Grievous, long time no see," Cad Bane remarked as he greeted him.

"Indeed," Grievous commented. "Who are all these people?" Grievous asked Bane.

"I am Aerien," A man introduced himself, as he stepped forwards, closing the distance between him and Grievous.

"How wonderful," Grievous said sarcastically. "We will be going now."

"Oh is that so?" Aerien questioned. "I think not." Just as he said this, the other guards stepped forwards raising their hands as Aerien took a step back. The soldiers closed in. Bane turned around to face them.

"What is it you want?" Grievous demanded, glancing at Aerien and his soldiers. As he reached for his lightsabers.

"We need you to do something for us," Aerien said.

"Not interested," Grievous shook his head, as he placed his hands in his cloak and took out two lightsabers. He glanced around and saw that the Jedi were already igniting their lightsabers.

"I beg you to reconsider," Aerien offered as he moved slowly out of the way.

"I don't think so," Grievous shot back. He ignited the two lightsabers in his hands. One was glowing a bright blue colour, and the other a peaceful green colour.

"We'll see," Aerien snapped, as he motioned his soldiers into action with one single command. "Attack them." He shouted. Cad Bane dived out of the way for cover as the soldiers started firing at General Grievous and the Jedi. They parried the lasers, fairly easy—not using too much energy. Grievous sent some of the lasers straight back at the source, hitting one soldier in the chest, sending him down to the ground, and hitting another in his left knee cap. Jabidus saw two other soldiers come out from the main building, coming into the courtyard, armed with rifles.

"More," Jabidus remarked as Grievous charged towards them both. The two new soldiers started firing at the alien cyborg, but were no match to fight him. As Grievous came at them, they saw their mistake, and both dived out of the way, trying to avoid the general's lightsabers. Grievous swung the lightsabers at one of the soldiers, as he landed on the ground from his dive, missing the strike by a few centimetres. Grievous leapt a few feet into the air in front of him, landing on the soldiers back.

"Get off me!" The soldier cried. Still holding both his lightsabers, Grievous bent down slightly and stabbed both lightsabers through the soldier's neck. Grievous felt something hit him in the back; he swung around, and saw the other soldier a few feet away pointing the rifle at Grievous. The soldier aimed and fired once again. Grievous reacted instantly; bringing his lightsabers to block the laser and sending it straight back to him. It hit him square in the chest. Grievous turned to see Dovish slice down the remaining soldier. Then the Jedi deactivated their lightsabers as Grievous walked over to them. Bane was stood with them, looking at this Aerien man, and glanced around mockingly.

"Looks like you're the last man standing," Bane commented.

"We'll take our leave then," Grievous said.

"I see that you're very capable," Aerien said trying his best to persuade them. "We could do with someone like you in our ranks."

"I've already said we're not interested." Grievous repeated his first decision.

"You will regret it, friend," Aerien warned.

"And what are you going to do about it?" Grievous asked sharply, taking a step closer to him to close the distance between them.

"I have a unique treasure that I can pay you." Aerien said.

"What sort of treasure?" Bane asked.

"Come inside and I will show you." Aerien said.

"You interested?" Grievous turned to look at Bane.

"Perhaps, he discussed it with me a few days ago. To find this leader of this other syndicate and bring him to justice if possible, or kill him I think was the option." Bane said.

"Yes, Lynros Mikat. Kill him, assassinate him." Aerien said.

"I see," Grievous considered for a moment. "And what is it you have to offer?"

"You can't be serious considering doing such a mission!" Dovish, objected, speaking out of turn, interupting the flow of the conversation.

"This isn't our concern," Jabidus, turned to look at his apprentice. "As long as we're not involved.

"I usually pay with money, but no doubt you have lots of that." Aerien explained. "I have several different treasures that I can offer you as payment."

"What sort of treasures?" Grievous asked, getting slightly more interested.

"Ah, you are interested," Aerien commented. "Come and I will show you."

"Okay then," Grievous said. He turned to look at Bane, and the two Jedi Jabidus and Dovish. "You stay here and look after the shuttle. Until we return."

"As you wish," Bane said.

"Yes, it will be fine," Jabidus nodded his head, at his order.

Grievous and Shaak Ti begun following Aerien to one of the entrances of the building in front of them. As they approached the door, Aerien placed his right hand in his pocket and took out this data card, and slid it across the card reader on the door. The little light on the card reader went from red to green. The door slid open and Aerien stepped through the doorway, and into the hallway of the building, with both Grievous and Shaak Ti following him only a step behind. The corridor was brightly lit with huge round lights hanging from the ceiling. There were also paintings hung up on the walls of mostly scenery, but there were other paintings that really stood out; some were of these monsters that Grievous had never seen before. Some were of huge serpents in the water, and others were land and flying creatures. But it looked peaceful. No guns, no war, no interference.

There was also one other very odd painting, it was of a temple set in the jungle, with fire sprouting out at the top in a swirling motion, while there were various creatures watching from the edge of the forest. Around the edge of the painting there were these black symbols of some sort.  
"Do you remember what I described on the shuttle before?" Shaak Ti asked Grievous, bringing him back into reality.

"Yes," Grievous replied, nodding his head.

"That feeling...is getting closer." Shaak Ti said rather quietly. "I can feel these spirits or whatever they are, calling out for help."

"I'm sorry, what are you on about?" Aerien asked, obviously eavesdropping.

"It's of no importance," Grievous answered first, very sternly as they made their way down this corridor.

"I see," Aerien said, sounding disappointed that he wasn't involved with the conversation.

"You seem to have a rather exclusive taste in the works of art, and culture as it were," Grievous complimented him, he was very genuine—which was quite a rare thing indeed.

"Thank you," Aerien replied as they went down the third corridor. "This is my home, though I do use it as a base for my organisation at the same time. My great grandparents were very rich, and collected many different paintings, and various other items of interest. They had bought houses on other planets, for research and vacations. I choose to move some of the items, here since I call this place home. And a lot of it has been passed down to my two sisters and I, while some of it has been stolen or been handed over to different Museums who wanted these possessions."

"Sounds interesting," Grievous said. Up ahead he could see a guard of some sort stood by the side of the wall. As they came to the door, Grievous saw a second guard in uniform with a droid stood next to him. The door was locked with yet another card reader, and Grievous noted there was a holocam way above the door, looking down on them. Aerien took out two cards this time, and swiped both in the device. The device beeped, and the little light flashed from red to green, and the door slid open sideways. Aerien stepped through the doorway with Shaak Ti and Grievous coming inside a second or so later, and both of them stared in awe.

"You can choose any treasure as payment, but only on the condition that you can carry it." Aerien said.

The room was rather big in size, larger than most ordinary rooms you would find in a standard house, but it was rather tall, as in the ceiling was very high. In the room, there were several small statues of cat animals that were at the front of the room, facing the door, and as soon as Grievous saw them; he could tell from a moments glance that they were made out of the purest gold, with green emerald eyes, both statues were stood next to each other. The cats in each statue were in a sitting down position. There were other small statues scattered around the room, some of birds on perches, dogs and bears. Beyond the cat statues there were two large shelves at the back of the room filled with various ornaments, like vases, printed plates...that seemed rather trivial to Grievous to be honest. Hung up from the wall to the left were a collection of antique swords, shields, daggers, spears, crossbows that looked much more appealing to Grievous. In the right hand corner of the room was an enormous trophy cabinet. Grievous could see it was filled with coloured orbs of some sort. They were a black and grey colour on the outer layer of the orb, and a bright illuminating colour on the inner layer of the orb. From here, Grievous could see different colours of orbs; silver, blue, orange, red, green, yellow. Grievous walked over to the trophy cabinet in the corner, he could see that there were various other orbs that had been previously hidden by view; but the general could clearly see them, there were multi-coloured orbs as well.

"Interesting," Shaak Ti said from behind him.

"Yes," Grievous responded, not really paying 100% attention to what she said.

Shaak Ti quickly glanced at Aerien, who was out of earshot for the moment. "That anomaly I sensed before, in the shuttle and in the corridor. It's coming from these orbs."

"Yes," Grievous replied. "Wait what? You serious?" Grievous placed a hand on the trophy cabinet, and opened its glass doors without incident. He counted that there were a dozen more orbs in total.

"Yes I am serious," Shaak Ti responded, she then changed the topic of conversation slightly. "If you are going to carry out this mission, I doubt any of the Jedi will want to take part in any kind of assassination. It's not the Jedi way."

"No, If I decide to do it, I will do it alone." Grievous replied as he picked up one of the orbs with his right hand, as he looked at he saw that it had a silvery blue colour in the centre of the orb. It felt light in his hand. As he looked at it, a very peculiar phrase flashed across the General's mind; Help us.


	14. The Convoy

Chapter 14 The Convoy

Azen Kraal had been tortured for days on end, in this academy on Coruscant. He was now once again alone in this small chamber, sat on the floor, trying to gather what thoughts he had left. Darth Vader had let some of his minions, well one of his minions by the name of Cronal, to continue the mental torture that Vader had started. Cronal had used the Force to attack his mind, to try send him into a state of permanent madness. Kraal had been strong, at first perhaps, but he grew weaker with every passing day; it didn't help him that they hardly ever brought him any food or water, what made this all the more worse: the entire academy was filled with the dark side; the dark energy filled every corridor, every room. It was difficult to stay focused.

Time was going slow so far it had been half an hour since Cronal had last been in here, half an hour of total silence, and loneliness—though to be fair he had been alone since his fellow Jedi had been killed at the end of the Clone Wars. Since then he hadn't really spoken to anyone.

I truly don't understand what is going on, every day before he does his torture he makes the same old speech; 'You will become one of us, and help maintain order for the Galactic Empire', or am I just making it sound more complicated than it really is; the Sith are the opposite of the Jedi in almost every way, they torture the weak; the Jedi defend the innocent and the Republic. Thousands of years ago, the Jedi thought the Sith during the days of the Old Republic, and the Old Sith Wars, the Great Sith Wars. But at those times, the Jedi had the backing of the Galactic Republic. The Sith back then were in numbers of excess, but in the last thousand years or so, the Sith have supposedly not been in existence as far as the Jedi Order was concerned. We did have that Assassin who killed Qui Gon-Jinn on Naboo, yes, it is possible he was a Sith Lord, Obi Wan Kenobi claimed he was. But he must've had a master...and the Jedi Council failed to act then and there. He looked up as he heard the door open. He saw Cronal stood in the doorway.

"Ah," Cronal said as he came into the room, with a cold smile on his face. "You will become one of us. And help maintain order for the Galactic Empire. You have to grow stronger; you don't use the hate as an ally. You choose to surrender to Menance and Tenalis. We sense the inborn fear in you."  
"I have no fear! Not anymore!" Kraal jumped to his feet, in full rage. He looked at Cronal who just stood there, smiling.  
"You see you can use anger when you want to," Cronal said. "You can use that anger, and that emotion to fuel your power in the Force. And help us destroy our enemies and bring them to justice."  
"What enemies?" Kraal demanded an answer. "I thought your Empire was the most powerful government in the universe."  
"We are the most powerful." Cronal replied.  
"Then what do you have to fear?" Kraal demanded.  
"Not fear, but hatred of the inferior enemies, who continue to evade our efforts." Cronal said. "The ones they call the Separatists for instance."  
"The Separatists," Kraal repeated in disgust.  
"Yes," Cronal replied. He raised his right hand, pointed towards Kraal. He began to invade the man's mind, to try and break him from the inside. Kraal placed both hands on his head to try to stop it, but he wasn't strong enough to stop it. The other man was far more powerful.

* * *

The _Iziz _and the _Tantive IV_ dropped out of lightspeed, arriving in the Abregado System, after just coming from Commenor. The planet ahead of them was Abregado-Rae, a planet in the Core Worlds region of space. Though it was in the southern part of the Core Worlds. A senator by the name of Carl Arlwin, who had signed the petition of 2000 back on the Coruscant. Abregado-Rae was a temperate world, with a breathable atmosphere, along with pleasant scenery such as mountains, hills, coasts, making it sound like a paradise. There were two main huge cities on the planet, Capital City and Le Yer, there were smaller outlying towns as well. To the untrained eye, this was in fact a dangerous planet to live, despite being so close to the Core, as they had many smugglers who travelled to the planet, as well as rather high crime rate compared to other Core Worlds. So they would have to be careful down there on the surface and stay inconspicuous.

The two ships slowly approached the planet. The pilot onboard the Tantive IV performed a scan of the system, to check there weren't any ships of the Empire here in this region. To their luck, there were no other ships in orbit over Abregado-Rae, at least for the moment.  
"We have to work quickly," Bail Organa said aloud.  
"Yes, no doubt," Said the voice of Mon Mothma from behind him, causing Bail to jerk slightly.  
"You jumped me there," Bail spun round to look at her.  
"Sorry," Mon Mothma apologised. "There could be imperials based there."  
"It's just a risk we'll have to take," Bail said. He heard the alarms going off on the cockpit, signalling an incoming message coming from the Iziz.

* * *

Vader entered the small circular chamber inside the academy; he kneeled down as he took out his small commlink and contacted his master, Lord Sidious. Darth Sidious appeared as a hologram on the small commlink.  
"Lord Vader, how goes your progress training the Dark Side users?" Palpatine asked him.  
"It goes well my master. We have already located one of the Jedi who managed to evade order 66, by the name of Azen Kraal." Vader informed him. "I have begun torturing him, to turn him to the dark side of the Force."  
"Good," Palpatine said, sounding rather positive.  
"There are obviously large numbers of Jedi unaccounted for, including several members of the Jedi Council." Vader said.  
"Yes, I am aware of that matter." Palpatine said. "It is clear, that these Jedi have gone into hiding somewhere. And since we have yet to locate the two strongest Jedi Masters of the Jedi Order, Master Yoda and Master Windu, we will still have to remain vigilant and double our search."  
"Yes Lord Sidious," Vader replied. "We have set up bases on many of the Core Worlds, and Deep Core Worlds, we have continued to search for the Jedi and the Separatists but we're not having much look. We could do with increasing our fleet and garrison further out worlds such as the Inner Core or the Colonies."  
"Ah, that reminds me, the construction of your new command ship, the first of the new Super Star Destroyer is nearly completed, at the shipyards of Kuat." Palpatine said. "I do agree, that keeping order, and increasing our fleet is necessary. Getting rid of threats, however large or small is even more important."  
"Yes my master," Vader responded and then Palpatine ended the message. The hologram disappeared. Vader got back to his feet and as he put his commlink away.

* * *

Palpatine was sat at his desk in his office at the Senate building on Coruscant. He had now finished his second book, the Weakness of Inferiors that covers four main aspects; All power comes from outside the weak, the face of authority, the law of fear and the weak do not understand the Force. In front of Palpatine was also a collection of datapads that had come from the Jedi Temple. They were lists of all the known Jedi that had been at the temple, a large number of Jedi had already been slain before Order 66, during the course of the Clone Wars such as Coleman Trebor, Pablo-Jill, and Adi Gallia etc. Next to their name was their rank, for instance next to Coleman Trebor it said 'Coleman Trebor Jedi Master, Council Member, Deceased'. But there was a large amount of Jedi from these datapads that had as far as they know had survived Order 66, though most of these were insignificant to Palpatine, but it was the Council Members that had survived concerned Palpatine; Master Yoda, Master Windu, Master Shaak Ti and Master Kcaj—no one had found any of their bodies in the wreckage of the temple or on Kashyyyk—where Master Yoda was stationed at the end of the Clone Wars.

This meant that they must be still alive somewhere, it wasn't a huge problem for Palpatine, but there was always that chance that all of them may turn up at his front desk, to reclaim their Republic and status. Not only that, but there were many Jedi who were presumed dead, but not confirmed such as Jedi Master Ikrit, Beldorion, Echuu Shen-Jon, Vergere...the more he looked at the list the more it disgusted that a large amount could have survived. On the other hand, they had so far crossed off the list that had been found or killed either at the end of the Clone Wars, or afterwards during Operation Knightfall or Order 66 such as; Obi Wan Kenobi, Ki Adi Mundi, Plo Koon, Stass Allie, Jocasta Nu, Nejaa Halcyon, Serra Keto, Jurokk, Kento Marek etc.

And so far no one had come forward with any information on the whereabouts of the Jedi or the Separatists. We have done well so far though, setting up military bases on many different worlds throughout the new Empire, and Sector Governors of different Sectors, and now Regional Governors, Palpatine thought to himself. Once our secret weapon, the ultimate weapon has been constructed that will put fear into all our enemies, the Death Star of course, the thought crossed his mind. In fact I think it's time I paid a visit to the planet Despayre, where the Death Star was being constructed. He decided.

* * *

These artefacts are very interesting, Grievous thought to himself. Maybe I should just take all of these now. Grievous thought to himself.  
"We need to leave now," Grievous muttered out loud. "Taking one or more back for study."  
"What? We can't steal them." Shaak Ti countered, still trying to keep her voice low. "Whatever they contain."  
"He obviously doesn't study them, nor need them." Grievous shot back, as he quickly placed the orb in his cloak pocket. He then looked up back at the other orbs.  
"Have you found something of value?" Aerien said from behind them both. Both Grievous and Shaak Ti turned around to face Aerien who was walking over to them.  
"Yes" Grievous answered affirmatively.  
"Good," Aerien said. "I'm glad we can reach some sort of an agreement. Do you wish to bargain for your payment then?" He offered rather generously, sounding a little bit eager.  
"Yes," Grievous replied. "As payment, I wouldn't mind taking these orbs."  
"Is that all?" Aerien questioned.  
"Yes," Grievous answered. "All of them."  
"I see." Aerien hesitated for a moment. "They won't be much worth selling."  
"Who said anything about selling them?" Grievous asked him. "It's either all of them or nothing. You want this job done. Half of them up front now as payment, and the rest when I return."  
"Half up front," Aerien repeated, sounded slightly annoyed at this suggestion. "Fine, half of those orbs up front now. And the rest when you've finished the job. To prove you've done it, you have to bring me proof, whether it is his ID, passport or his head I don't mind. I will go and get you the details you need for the mission." Aerien said. "I believe there are about thirteen orbs or so orbs in there, so you can have seven to as the pre payment, and the others after the jobs done. Please can you move out of the way, so I can hand you these things?"  
"Of course," Grievous replied.  
Grievous and Shaak Ti moved away from the trophy cabinet thing as Aerien looked into the cabinet, and begun to take some of them out to give to the Jedi and the Cyborg. He picked up two, one with each hand, one was a fiery yellow colour, while the other was a majestic purple blue colour, he handed them both to Grievous.  
"Very nice," Grievous remarked, as he held them both up towards his eyes.  
"Wait, a minute, I made mistake, there's only twelve orbs," Aerien said, sounding slightly confused, as he peered into the cabinet. Shaak Ti just glanced at Grievous, who looked straight back at her in the eye, but saying nothing. "Strange, I always thought there were thirteen of them." As Grievous quickly placed the two other orbs inside his cloak; nearly revealing the concealed 13th one right in front of Aerien.  
"You were mistaken then," Shaak Ti said as she radiated a powerful aura in the Force. "It does not matter."  
"Yeah, I guess you're right. We can take what we want from Lynros Mikat's hideout or home. When we have finally caught him." Aerien said, enthusiastically.

* * *

Garm Bel Iblis, Bail Organa and two of his officers from the _Iziz_ called Dejan Stoch and Iren Hal, had arrived on the surface of Abregado-Rae. All of them were armed with blaster pistols just in case of an emergency, those were clipped onto their belts. The Tantive IV had landed just outside of the city on the outskirts, since most spaceports docks were too small to fit something as large as a Corellian Corvette. Garm Bel Iblis had arrived in a small shuttle from the Iziz hangar bay. They were now in the city centre. They were in one of the city plaza's that was filled with stands and shops, in the middle of the plaza there was a huge fountain that looked amazing, with a statue of a humanoid being on top to add to the effect. There were benches near the fountain, with kids putting their hands in the water. The air was cleaner than it had been in recent years—Abregado-Rae had and still was an industrial world, with factories as well as having underground and open cast mines in the outskirts, as it is home of a very rare material known as Electrum.

As usual in any city—this one was no different, there were hundreds of citizens and droids out and about. However they had noticed a rather large increase in security, as in more soldiers on duty out and about in the streets. They continued moving through the city, to make their way to the government building, to stay inconspicuous, from detection, however easy or difficult that maybe.

As they approached the government building that was slightly away from the city centre, they could immediately see the perimeter fence that went around the building. In front of the building there was a courtyard and a several parked air cars. There were military soldiers stood at the single entrance that they would have to obviously pass through to visit Senator Carl Arlwin and the Prime Minister. They saw that they were armed with blaster rifles, and no doubt had contact with other soldiers based here in the city. They could see over the tops of the fence and through the gaps the government building itself. The building was a rather large three tier building; it was a beige creamy colour, made of some local clay or stone perhaps. It had a flag that stuck out high of the front of the building that was a royal blue colour, and it had the emblem of the planet, of some design. The four of them approached the gate. One of the officers stepped forwards, standing in their way. He was wearing dark blue coloured trousers, black boots, as well as a light blue sweatshirt and a jacket. He had a blaster hanging from his belt on his waist.  
"State your name and business here," The soldier demanded, sounding very assertive.  
"I am Senator Bail Organa." Bail answered, very directly and calmly.  
"I am Senator Garm Bel Iblis," Bel Iblis answered. "And these are two security officers."  
"Show me your ID cards," The soldier said.  
Both Bail and Garm Bel Iblis handed him their datacards. The soldier inspected both of them, and handed them both back to their respective owners a few moments later.  
"I see," The soldier said a moment later. "And what is your business here then?"  
"I wish to speak to Senator Carl Arlwin," Bail answered.  
"He might not have time to see you." The soldier answered, not offering an explanation as to why, though senators are generally busy, as well as the Prime Minister who also used this building. "I will see if he can fit you in later day." He looked over at one of his colleagues, and shook his head affirmatively. The other soldier turned on his heels, and made his way into the courtyard and walked over to the entrance to the government building. The soldier stood at the door for a few moments, and then the door slid open. The soldier then stepped through the doorway and the door closed behind him.

* * *

Palpatine had contacted his aide Mas Amedda and then Lord Vader to inform them both of his temporary leave of absence. And now Palpatine was stood on the bridge of the _Penumbra _up in orbit over Coruscant. He spoke to Admiral Nubis, and told him his destination, that he then relayed to the captain.  
"We will be leaving soon enough," Admiral Nubis informed His Excellency.  
"Good," Palpatine replied, as the _Penumbra_ began to leave Coruscant's orbit, and entered space, preparing for light speed along one of the many hyperspace routes to the Outer Rim Territories.

* * *

Grievous and Shaak Ti returned to the shuttle, where Cad Bane, Jabidus Inspra and his apprentice Dovish were stood on guard waiting for their return. Shaak Ti was carrying three of the seven orbs two in her pockets and one in her hand, while Grievous carried the other four. As soon as Bane saw them, they drew his attention.  
"What are they?" Bane asked, pointing at the orb in Grievous hand, as well as Jedi Master Shaak Ti.  
"Payment for this job," Grievous answered.  
"They look as though they are worth a lot," Bane replied. "Zedo the Hutt contacted me while you were inside that building. Two of his freighters are in orbit now, preparing to leave. I gave them the New Hope's comm frequency, so they can contact you when we return."  
"Ah good, it's about time," Grievous nodded.

* * *

It was now late evening on Coruscant. The moon light shining down on the surface from high up in space. Vader was now on the higher level of the imperial academy, stood on the balcony looking up at the night sky. There were many thoughts that ran through the Sith Lord's mind; 'Why did Padme desert me and took the children with her? Where are they now? Are they with those traitors the Separatists or the Jedi? The questions continued to plague the Sith Lord's mind, day in and day out. We are no closer to finding their current location, they are strong enough to continue this game of cat and mouse, but not strong enough to come out of hiding and take the fight to the Empire. Vader thought to himself. Within the next few weeks, we're going to have to double our search efforts, or just forget about the Jedi and the Separatists completely and carry on strengthening their armies, and their hold over the Galaxy.

* * *

"We will soon find out whether or not Senator Carl Arlwin has time to see you," The soldier stated.  
As they waited there, Bail looked at the soldier's uniform, looking at the man's identity badge that was displayed on the front of the uniform; it said 'Colonel James Jackson'. At least Bail now knew the name of the military leader he was dealing with.  
"Right," Col. James Jackson said, after seeing Bail inspect his badge. "Anything else you want to know about me?" He asked sarcastically, looking at both Bail and his guard.  
"Nothing really," Bail shook his head, trying to avoid making other conversation with this man.  
"Actually yes," Garm said, speaking up. "How long have you served in the army?"  
"It's not really of your business sir," Col. James Jackson said. "But I've been serving in the army for about four years now."  
"I see," Garm said.

They stood waiting there in silence, occasionally a pedestrian or two would walk past the government building heading somewhere—whether they were heading home, or to another district was hard to tell. Bail stood there, occasionally looking up at the clear blue sky, with a few scattered nimbus clouds, and seeing the more than occasional shuttle or starship coming or leaving the planet.

Finally after about fifteen minutes, the soldier and Senator Arlwin—himself came out of the government building, and walked over to the gate.  
"Senator," Col. Jackson greeted Arlwin.  
"Hello Colonel," Arlwin greeted him in the same formal tone. He turned and looked at Senator Organa and then at Garm Bel Iblis. "Afternoon Senator Organa and Senator Bel Iblis."  
"Hello Senator Arlwin." Bail greeted him back in the formal manner.  
"Greetings Senator," Bel Iblis said.  
"I decided to come and see you since you were waiting out here to see me." Arlwin said. "Come inside where it is more private to speak freely; Prime Minister Wiliam Th'ram is inside as well."  
"Of course," Bel Iblis nodded in agreement.

* * *

Grievous piloted the shuttle back to the _New Hope_ in orbit over Nar Shaddaa. He landed the shuttle inside the hangar bay. After he landed the shuttle, the hangar bay doors closed as usual, as they made their way back to the bridge.

As Grievous came onto the bridge, he showed Ahsoka one of the orbs.  
"What's that? Treasure?" Ahsoka asked, as Grievous handed it to her.  
"Precisely, treasure," Grievous agreed.  
"You mean payment for a hired job," Shaak Ti corrected.  
Grievous turned around and saw that she was standing a few meters away from him on the bridge. And then he turned back to look at Ahsoka.  
"What do you want me to do with this?" Ahsoka asked him.  
"Have it scanned," Grievous said. "We have more than just one of them."  
"Okay then, I'll take it to the lab," Ahsoka said as she held it in both hands, looking at it.  
"Here's another one to take," Grievous replied as he placed one hand in his cloak, and took an orb out of his cloak pocket and handed it to Ahsoka. Ahsoka turned around, and dashed off the bridge.  
"Where do you want these?" Shaak Ti asked, holding two of the three orbs she had taken.  
Grievous glanced around the bridge, looking for extra space to place them. There was a single compartment for storage that was near the forward controls on the bridge. He opened it, looked inside, found it was filled with spare lightsabers, spare commlinks and a few spare medpacs.  
"We will take all of them to the lab then," Grievous decided.  
"Okay then," Shaak Ti replied.  
Just as they were going off the bridge, one of the alarms on the bridge went off. Grievous turned around, to look at the bridge.  
"Incoming message, from the nearby freighter," One of the battle droids at their stations reported.  
"Answer it," Grievous said as Shaak Ti carried on making her way to the laboratory.  
A Nautolan appeared on the large screen in the corner of the bridge. He was dressed in uniform, like a mercenary, black sweatshirt, black leathered armour and shoulder pads.  
"General Grievous," The Nautolan said. "I am Commander Veril. My boss Zedo the Hutt has told me that you are going to be protecting our convoy."  
"Yes, that is true," Grievous replied loudly, nodding his head.  
"I will send you the co-ordinates of our destination, in a few moments." Veril informed them. "And then we leave, immediately."  
"Right," Grievous acknowledged, still speaking loudly, enough for the Nautolan to hear. Then the screen went blank.

* * *

Padme was still onboard the _Tantive IV_ and obviously still looking after her twins, Luke and Leia in one of the small rooms onboard the Corellian Corvette. Both children were in a small bed, with Padme watching over them. R2-D2 and C3-PO would watch over them and look after them, when Padme had to rest. For the moment the two droids were elsewhere on the Corvette for the moment, while Padme was sat in the room on a chair. At the moment she felt happy, happy that her children were alive and well, but she was sad and disappointed at the same time, sad that their father, her husband, her lover had become an agent of Evil. The Jedi had failed to act, had failed to protect Anakin from the Sith, especially Obi Wan Kenobi. By the time they had realised what really was happening, it was too late. She shook her head in silence. She heard the room's door slide open. In the doorway stood C3-PO.  
"Mistress Padme," C3-PO said as he came inside. "Lady Mon Mothma wishes to speak to you. Apparently you need some more food supplies onboard."  
"Oh right, okay," Padme replied, getting up from her seat.  
"We will look after the kids for you," C3-PO said.  
"Oh good," Padme responded, as she checked that her blaster pistol was hanging from her belt. She put on her cloak, that concealed her blaster, and then she stepped around the protocol droid as R2-D2 appeared in the doorway, and came into the room. Padme left the room, and glanced back at her children who were soundly asleep.

Padme found Mon Mothma sat in the conference room at the table.  
"Mon Mothma," Padme said, using her name rather than title, sounding slightly informal.  
"Ah, there you are Padme," Mon Mothma replied, using the same casual tone now. But this was acceptable since they were friends, as well as colleagues. "We need to head out into the city to collect some more food supplies."  
"Yes," Padme said. "Let's head out to the city then."  
"Of course we will take one or two officers for security." Mon Mothma informed her.

* * *

The _New Hope _along with three freighters and a corvette entered lightspeed after leaving Nar Shaddaa's orbit. They were heading deeper into Hutt space. Grievous suddenly remembered to take his other orbs down to the laboratory; he looked over at Ahsoka's station and saw that she had not yet returned. He left the bridge, passing some Jedi on the way. Most of them looked bored, asleep, or meditating in silence.

Grievous came into the laboratory. It was a small room to be honest, with one main station with a scanner, a computer, a microscope, and various other types of equipment. From what Grievous could see most of the orbs were now on the scanner. He found Ahsoka and Shaak Ti conversing with a Male Ithorian Jedi, called Melik Degu, and a research droid, it was like protocol droid that was used in the laboratory for research, usually working under a scientist or researcher, but they didn't really have a researcher for the moment, so one of the Jedi had stepped into that role for the time being.  
"Ah General," Melik spoke in basic, with a strange accent. "We are having difficulties."  
"What sort of difficulties?" Grievous asked as he placed the remaining orbs on the scanner table.  
"Well, we've already scanned these orbs." Melik informed him. "We have discovered that the centre of the orb is made of some sort of crystal, and the outer part is rock. We can't really narrow it down where they were made, and because we can't see where they were made, we can't tell how old they are."  
"I see," Grievous said, in thought.  
"As you can see on all the orbs, the crystal glows, as if it was full of power. But the computers can't see any anomalies down there." Melik said, continuing his explanation. He turned around and walked over to the scanner table, and picked one of the orbs up. "However, for some reason, I do feel life in them. I don't know what though." He said as he looked at the orb. "My people, on Ithor, might be able to help us, and unravel its mystery."  
"Ithor," Grievous repeated. "We can go there after the Jedi have relocated to a new home." He said, being honest with him.  
"I hope you keep your word General, as I would like to see my home world again." Melik said.  
"Of course," Grievous replied. "We must return to the bridge." He looked over at Ahsoka, who in turn looked at him, and nodded her head.

* * *

The _Penumbra _dropped out of lightspeed as it entered the Horuz System that was home to the planet Despayre. The planet Despayre was deep within the Atrivis Sector that was home to a number of planets such as Generis, Togoris, Moltok, Trammis, and obviously Despayre, and a few other lesser known planets. As they approached the dim looking world of Despayre, Palpatine could see the enormous orbital shipyard above Despayre, there were Venator Class Star Destroyers, about two of them present.  
"They're making contact," The captain on the bridge reported as he looked up from one of the stations.  
"Answer it," Admiral Nubis responded, as he walked over to him. "Out of my way." He said sharply, and the captain immediately moved, revealing an imperial commander on the screen dressed in green uniform. He was wearing a green cap that went with the uniform, and from what he could see he had short hair.  
"Commander Alen," Nubis greeted sharply. "The Emperor is here. Prepare for his arrival."  
"The Emperor?" The commander sounded very surprised and taken aback; he had known that another Venator class destroyer was on its way here, but not had been informed that the Emperor was also making a visit.  
"Yes, Commander, the Emperor is here." Nubis said. "He wants to inspect the construction site."  
"Yes, Admiral right away," Alen replied, regaining his composure.

* * *

Over the last few days, Vader had not only been training the dark side adepts at the academy, he had also gone to the Pilot Institute to see how the progress of the young pilots was going. They mainly used simulators for pilot training—though it wasn't exactly like the real thing, but it would have to do for now, as it was still too early to start training in actual starfighters. They also did fitness routines, such as running for at least two hours in the morning and two in the evening, as well as survival skills in case of emergency and survival, and of course basic weapon training. The more advanced weapon training was given in the ground forces academy, north of this region on the surface of Coruscant.

Vader was stood in the backroom of the simulator room, looking at a huge screen that was keeping a record of all the different pilots in the next room who were using the simulators. It kept record of the time they stayed alive, how many kills they got, and their reaction times to different threats or enemies that appeared in the simulation. All the names on the board were currently lit up in green, meaning they were still active in the simulation. So far the simulation had been going on for about ten minutes. Vader glanced at the door as it swung open, General Telan Orsan, a general from the clone wars, was in charge of this academy.  
"General," Vader said sharply, as Orsan stood next to him.  
"Lord Vader," Orsan greeted him in the same formal, sharp tone of voice.  
A recruit by the name of Lark Dressil, went a white colour meaning their session had ended. The timer next to his name stopped at 12.54 on the board.  
"Everybody is expected to do better than this," Orsan remarked, after seeing another name turn grey.  
"Yes, no doubt," Vader agreed.

* * *

Bail Organa and Bel Iblis had followed Carl Arlwin inside to the government building while the two security officers waited outside. Both Senators had to hand over their blaster pistols to the indoor security during their stay. Carl Arlwin lead them into the main meeting hall, where there were four other people waiting for them that were sat at a large oval shaped table in the middle of the room. There were three men and one woman. It was a brightly lit room from over head lighting, but no windows.  
"This is Senator Bail Organa and Senator Garm Bel Iblis," Carl Arlwin introduced them to the Prime Minister. Wiliam Th'ram was a male Human, he was old looking, dark skin, with short, greyish white hair. He was wearing dark blue robes with gold coloured designs.  
"Ah, yes of course," Wiliam Th'ram nodded his head. "Take a seat."  
Carl Arlwin took an empty seat next to a man neither Bail nor Garm recognised. Bail sat next Carl with Garm on his left.  
"Before we get down to the discussion, this is my personal adviser," He pointed to the closest man on his left hand side. "Simon A'kull." He then introduced the other people at the table, the woman who was sat next A'kull, was called Shela Boors and she was the Director of Intelligence. On the other side of Wiliam Th'ram, was the Minister of Defence called Jorn Vimmel, and next to him was High General Din Dann, the leader of the armed forces, which included ground, air forces and space.  
"Now that we've finished with the introductions," Wiliam Th'ram said. "We will get down to business."  
"Yes of course," Carl Arlwin said.  
"We are strongly against the Galactic Empire, though we haven't made it public knowledge yet, in case it fell into the wrong hands. Unfortunately for us, they are bringing a garrison of soldiers as well as a Governor to watch over me and keep me apparently in line. As well as having a Venator Class Star Destroyer bearing down on us from orbit for a short period of time." Wiliam Th'ram said, giving them the update.  
"When will this come into effect?" Garm Bel Iblis asked him.  
"Well, later on this week." Wiliam Th'ram answered. "Though it has already happened to most of the Core Worlds already."  
"We were planning on having an underground operation against the Empire, to at least drive them off world." Carl Arlwin said. "It's just we don't have enough ships or tanks available, to defend ourselves if it ever came to war."  
"Yes, we only have two ships available and no starfighters." Bail said. "A crew of about twenty or so on my ship, and about forty on the other ship."  
"Have you had much look in finding the other members who signed the petition of 2000?" Carl Arlwin asked Bail.  
"Well yes and no," Bail answered, vaguely. "We've got a few members who still want to fight for their freedom, including myself, Garm, Mon Mothma and Padme."  
"Ah, they are here then?" Carl Arlwin asked.  
"Yes, both of them are presently here on the planet," Garm answered. "Padme is occupied at the moment."  
"We have also have managed to find a large number of Jedi who survived the Purge as well as some of the Separatist Leaders who are working alongside the Jedi, currently." Bail informed them.  
"Ah, yes," Wiliam Th'ram said. "It would account for Palpatine issuing a bounty for remaining Jedi, a while back."  
"Unfortunately," Bail said.  
"Well the good news is that we've also managed to get in contact with some of the other members who signed the Petition of 2000." Carl Arlwin informed them both. "Senator Drasil had indeed made contact with us, a few days ago. He is on his way here apparently. We don't know what's happened to the other senators that were a part of the Delegation of 2000. It's all been hushed up, I guess. Some of those other senators may have gone into hiding from the Emperor or have been captured."  
"I see," Bail said. "We have yet found a planet that we can use for a base of operations."  
"Yes that maybe difficult." Wiliam nodded his head. "You would have to head out into the Outer Rim to find a suitable planet that's outside of the Empire's grasp."

* * *

Palpatine had arrived on the surface of the gloomy world Despayre; he had just come off the transport shuttle that had landed in one of the camps. Palpatine came into the camp, finding it messy, as in materials and crates all over the place, with prisoners and criminals being constantly monitored by stormtroopers, several imperial officers. A man dressed in black uniform approached them, he wasn't a normal imperial officer; he was the High General—the one in charge of this operation for the time being, until Wilhuff Tarkin made his frequent visits to the planet. The High General was called Marl Meniz, again obviously a human.  
"Your Excellency," Marl kneeled down on the ground in front of him.  
"Stand," Palpatine snarled.  
Marl responded instantly standing up to his feet.  
"How goes the construction of the Death Star?" Palpatine asked him.  
"Well it's taking very long just to get even the basics done." Marl said. "These prisoners aren't very good workers. A lot of them, if not all of them are mentally unstable. We are doing well in terms of bringing in ship components, and various other materials off-world. We are also using the resources on world to help as well."  
"I see," Palpatine said sharply. "Show me around the camp then."  
"Okay then." Marl said. "Follow me."  
Marl led Palpatine around the camp towards the main exit, coming across a long line of prisoners and slave labourers carrying materials to the camp that would be used for the Death Star. They were under constant observation from the stormtroopers—the new models of the Clone troopers, and Imperial Officers. Most of them were remaining quiet, or at least trying to; Palpatine could hear them grunting, and moaning, but not speaking. Up ahead however, they heard shouting and screaming.  
"What's going on over there?" Palpatine demanded, as he tried to look past the other Prisoners who were getting in the way.  
"Probably a prisoner having a meltdown, again," Marl said, shaking his head, while Palpatine begun walking towards the sound of the noise. Marl decided to follow him.

Palpatine arrived at the scene; he found four imperial stormtroopers and an officer trying to contain these two male workers on the floor throwing some sort of a tantrum, refusing to work as it seems.  
"W-we can't do anymore work!" The man cried for mercy, as he sat on the dirt, glancing at all the soldiers around him. The man looked over at Palpatine, and started to move towards him.  
"P-please! I beg of you." The man begged.  
Palpatine looked down at the man, raised his hands and a blast of lightning came flying out and hit the man straight in the face, surging through his body. The man collapsed.  
"Take him back to camp," Palpatine ordered. "And deal with him."  
Two stormtroopers grabbed a hold of the man, each taking one hand and dragged him back to the camp, by now he had stopped shouting and screaming.

* * *

The _New Hope _dropped out of lightspeed along with the convoy, arriving at their destination. According to the Nautolan, Veril, the planet before them was called Halin. From the bridge they could see that the planet was an atmospheric world, with huge greyish black clouds covering most of the section of the planet they could see from up here on the bridge. Grievous could also see one of the freighters approaching closer and closer to the planet; obviously it was going to head down into the planet's atmosphere and land on the surface. The other two freighters and the corvette were remaining still for the moment. The intercom alarm on the bridge went off.  
"Answer it," Grievous said. He looked up at the screen and saw Veril appear on the screen.  
"The freighter has arrived sucessfully at the base General," Veril said.  
"Good," Grievous responded. They didn't need to do any more than what was required of them, which was simply escorting these freighters.  
"We are now heading to our second research base, on the small moon Osil, that orbits the planet Jun. I may have already mentioned that all the bases that we are visiting are all in the Hutt Sector. We will send you the co-ordinates in a few moments."  
"Right," Grievous, nodded his head. Then the screen went blank.

As expected the co-ordinates for the planet Jun, and its moon Osil was transferred to their own computers on the bridge.  
"Set course for Osil," Grievous said.  
"Yes General," One of the battle droids responded almost instantaneously. It punched in the Co-ordinates for the hyperdrive.  
After the third freighter had rejoined the rest of the convoy, Grievous saw the other freighters and the corvette enter lightspeed, dissappearing from view instantly. And after a few passing seconds the New Hope entered lightspeed.

* * *

Orsan waited until all the recruits had finished their sessions in the simulation to give them a full debriefing, while Lord Vader returned to the Sith training Academy. Orsan, holding his datapad that he had transferred all the data they had recorded from the session, the door slid open as he approached it, and he stepped inside. In the room were the all the recruits.  
"Nearly all of you surpassed your expectations," Orsan said. "There is always room for improvement. In a few weeks we will be doing some proper pilot training in the Outer Rim territories away from Coruscant." He looked around the room, glancing at each pilot, most of their faces had lighten up when they heard that last sentence.

"But that's only when we get the rest of this training done, and completed." Orsan said. "Jace Howden." A short man of about five foot six stepped forwards but Telan Orsan waved him away. "You survived the longest, which was just less than thirty minutes, 29 minutes and 45 seconds to be exact, which is impressive for a young trainee recruit but not near enough to the target which is at least an hour. Which we are building up to." Orsan continued. "Dismissed." All the soldiers made their way out of the room in single file.


	15. Prisoners

Chapter 15 

After the incident concerning Galen Marek from then on he was placed under a stronger security detail, while there was an on-going private investigation to try and find out what had actually happened. In the meantime Darth Vader had returned to the academy the next day, and decided to hold a meeting with Cronal and Virak while the rest of the Inquisitors continued their training. Vader went into the small circular meeting room; Cronal and Virak were both already there sat at the table.  
"Lord Vader," Both Cronal and Virak greeted him. They saw that he was holding a datapad in one of his hands.  
"We have things to discuss," Vader said getting straight to the point. He strode over the table and placed the datapad on the table. "We need to locate these Jedi and bring everything single one of them to justice, either by death or conversion. The fact that they still exist they could become a threat to our Empire".  
"We already know this," Virak said sharply, his face frowning. "As long as they aren't here they don't pose an immediate danger."  
"But we don't know where they are, that's the point". Vader said.  
"Have you sensed any of them since the clone wars ended?" Cronal asked Vader sternly.  
"No, which means the ones that I used to know are long gone from here, but the rest I'm not certain about". Vader said, sounding rather impatient. "We need to double our efforts and double up on the security, and make sure if any of them does turn up arrest them immediately."  
"I thought that's what we were doing," Virak said, starting to get irritated with him.  
"The names are on the datapad," Vader said pointing down at it. "Your Inquisitors should be strong enough now should they find some of these Jedi."  
"We dealt with Azen Kraal without too much difficulty, but it's hard to tell. Most of the adepts have never fought Jedi before." Cronal replied.  
"The only way they'll get experience is by fighting them; if they get killed then they deserve it. They aren't strong enough and that's it." Vader said.  
"True, very true," Virak nodded his head in approval.  
"As you are aware of the fact that the Empire is sending imperial garrisons to different planets in a number of different star systems across the galaxy, we could do with a few of the Inquisitors going there to reinforce them temporarily and route out any Jedi or dissidents. Nor our fleet or army is large enough to go to each individual sector, star system and planet. But we can try and monitor some of their local governments and enforce our new rules." Vader said.  
"I see, it will make the Empire stronger and we might be able to draw out some of our enemies." Cronal said, with a malicious grin appearing on his face.  
"Yes that's the plan," Vader replied.

* * *

"You mentioned before that a number of Separatist Leaders had survived the Clone Wars," Shela Boors piped up.  
Both Bail and Garm Bel Iblis glanced over at her, she hadn't spoken yet during the meeting.  
"Yes that is right," Bail Organa spoke to her first.  
"Do you know if they have any of their starships, military units remaining?" Boors asked him, she said sounding enthusiastic.  
"I think they have at least one Trade Federation cruiser left, other than that we don't know," Garm answered her. He could see the look on her face and she sighed. "The Jedi are with them though."  
"That sounds unwise," A'Kull said sharply.  
"They don't have any choice, the Jedi have nowhere else to go yet." Organa said, looking over at him.  
"In other words…" A'Kull started.  
"Are they looking for a new home?" Shela Boors finished for him.  
"I can imagine so," Bail said. "That's not the issue here."  
Garm Bel Iblis could see where this line of conversation was going. "This is a joint effort in taking back our republic, for our freedom and liberty. We will all need to put in our own effort in fighting against the Empire."  
"We're not suggesting we should just rely on the Jedi." Boors said courtly. "We just want to know where everyone stands. We just wanted to know where the Jedi stand in all this, and what their goals are."  
"We haven't made contact with them for a while now," Garm said and shrugged his shoulders.  
"Okay then," Simon A'Kull said, sounding distant.  
"What about your military capabilities?" Garm asked them, looking specifically at Jorn Vimmel and Din Dann, who were the Ministry of Defence and the High General of the Armed forces respectively.  
Din Dann cleared his throat. "We have only a small garrison of troops here, three squads of fifteen, about five speeders, and a R-1 tank. Most of the soldiers are privates and we just have two high ranking senior officers."  
"Though we will be limited in what we can do once the Empire's Venator Class Star Destroyer arrives, and that should be soon. You should be gone long before they arrive." Jorn piped up.  
"We're aware of that." Organa replied.  
"We will give you our contact details so that you can keep in contact with us, after you leave." William Th'ram told them.  
"Good, so we can decide something at a later date." Organa said, nodding his head in agreement.

* * *

The _New Hope_ and the Convoy came out of light speed in the Jun System. Ahead of them was the large planet Jun, that from the bridge looked like a barren world. As soon as they arrived in the system, Ahsoka Tano from her station completed a full scan of the area using the sensors and radars. The results flashed onto the screen, there was no sign of any other ships in the surrounding area though cloaked or stealth ships could avoid the scanners, but that type of technology was very expensive, too expensive for the average pirate or mercenary.

"You'll be happy to know we haven't picked up any other ships on the radar," Ahsoka said, fairly loudly.  
"Good," Grievous said, turning around to glance at her. The Convoy started to head towards the planet, with the _New Hope_ following closely behind, and then went into the planet's orbit. They eventually broke Jun's Orbit, and they could see the moon of Osil in the near distance.

The journey to Osil was relatively short and unexciting to be honest. From the bridge, the moon looked rather dull to be honest like most moons; it was a dark grey colour. Above the moon there was a small space station. The Convoy approached the station, slowly and cautiously, and then came to a halt. A fair few moments passed, while seemingly nothing happened until one of the freighters flew into the hangar bay of the space station. There was yet several more minutes of waiting. Then finally the freighter came out of the space station's hangar bay, and reunited with the rest of the convoy.

A few moments later, the _New Hope_ received another incoming message from the main freighter of the Convoy, the Nautolan Veril appeared on the screen.  
"General we are done here," Veril said. "We can return to Nar Shaddaa now."  
"Good," Grievous said. Then the screen went blank. "Let's set course for Nar Shaddaa then."

* * *

After spending a few days here at Despayre, Palpatine had concluded that they needed efficient workers to do this job, ones that were more efficient than these criminals. Palpatine had noted that nearly all the criminals were humans, with the odd Rodian or some other inferior species; maybe they needed more efficient workers that were slightly more mentally stable, and physically stronger like Wookies. Palpatine had returned to the _Penumbra_ that was still in orbit over Despayre. Palpatine was stood with Admiral Nubis on the bridge, both of them looking  
"Admiral," Palpatine said to Nubis. "We will return to Coruscant for now."  
"Yes, your Excellency." Nubis replied.

* * *

While Garm Bel Iblis and Bail Organa had been at the meeting, they had left the twins on the _Tantive IV_ with C3-PO, R2-D2 and a number of security officers and other crew members, and had gone out into the city, taking two crew members with them so they had more hands for carrying supplies. After that they returned to the _Tantive IV_.

About an hour later in local time, Bail Organa and Garm Bel Iblis returned to the _Tantive IV_ after their meeting with Prime Minister Wiliam Th'ram and Senator Carl Arlwin. They sat down at the conference table with Mon Mothma and Padme. There was some prepared food on the table in front of them.  
"So what was the conclusion of your meeting with the prime minister?" Mon Mothma asked them, which was an obvious question to ask.  
"Well, nothing has been made certain yet," Garm Bel Iblis said. "They told us that the Empire is placing a garrison here to watch over them. They said to contact them when we have found a planet to use as a starting point as a base of operations."  
Padme took a bite of the Palo Vusu sandwich, which was a mixture of meat, crushed vegetables and Vusu sauce, which was a sweet and sour sauce that could be added to most meals to compliment the meat.  
"So where are we heading next then?" Mon Mothma said.  
Bail glanced at Garm Bel Iblis, who looked slightly uncertain.  
"We haven't decided yet". Bail shook his head. "We've not had that much luck in finding many allies that can help us."  
A beeping sound of a commlink went off in the room.  
"Not mine," Padme said after she'd checked.  
"It's mine," Garm Bel Iblis said, as he took out his small commlink device. He answered it immediately. A man in uniform appeared as a hologram on the small device.  
"Senator Iblis, our radars have picked up a cruiser that's dropped out of light speed and are approaching the planet," The man warned them. "We should leave now; it might be already too late."  
Garm Bel Iblis' frowned. He had been told that the Empire was sending a garrison here. "I'm returning now then." He stood up. "Better get back into space and escape if we can". He said. Garm Bel Iblis left the _Tantive IV_and went into the small shuttle parked alongside it. Inside the pilot and co-pilot had both been eagerly awaiting his return to leave the planet.

After Garm had left, Bail Organa had gone to tell the crew to prepare to leave the planet immediately, leaving just Mon Mothma and Padme in the conference room.  
"I must go and check on the children". Padme said standing up, smiling at Mon Mothma.

* * *

The _New Hope_ and the convoy soon returned to Nar Shaddaa. The convoy had gone down to the planet's atmosphere back to Zedo the Hutt's warehouse and report to him of their success, while Grievous, Cad Bane and the Jedi waited on the Trade Federation cruiser up in orbit over the planet. It didn't take too long for Zedo the Hutt's men to get back in contact with the _New Hope_. The alarm on the bridge signalling an incoming message went off after about thirty minutes local time of waiting.  
"Answer it," Grievous said.  
One of the battle droids responded immediately. Zedo the Hutt and one of his droid aides appeared on the screen on the bridge.  
"General Grievous," Zedo's protocol droid said mechanically.  
"Zedo the Hutt," Grievous said.  
"Cad Bane," the droid looked at the bounty hunter.  
Cad Bane just nodded his head in approval.  
"We have a list of number of planets that you can use for a base, whether it is temporary or permanent is up to you". The droid reported. "But most of the planets are outside of Hutt Space such as; Daluuj in the Albanin Sector which is a temperate world, small population open space breathable oxygen. It is out of the way. Another planet is Aduba 3 again which is outside of Hutt Space and is in the Bheriz Sector. It is also a temperate world, small population located there."  
"They both sound promising," Quinlan Vos said firmly. He glanced over at Master Windu and Master Yoda who were stood a few feet away, both were in deep thought.  
"There are two others that are also suitable," The droid said. "Rinn in the Baxel Sector and Chalacta in the Kastolar sector. Again both planets are temperate worlds, with various different terrains. Chalacta is the least populated of the four worlds, though all the planets have small local populations. Both planets have temples on that could be used for your own benefit".  
"We are grateful for your help," Mace Windu said. "May we have the co-ordinates for both Rinn and Chalacta?" Mace Windu asked.  
"You may yes," The droid responded. The droid looked away, at somebody off-screen. "Send the details to their ship". The droid looked back at the screen. "For a small fee we will send you an initial stock of supplies."  
"Yes Nute Gunray and his associates will deal with any costs," Grievous said.

* * *

After the meeting with Vader in the academy, Virak and Cronal had begun sending some of the Inquisitors to the planets where the imperial governors were being stationed to reinforce their garrison and also route out dissidents, Jedi and any other enemies they have.

The two Inquisitors, Hadren and Sara were sat in separate compartments on board the _Grinder_, which is an imperial Venator Class Star Destroyer that had been active during the Clone Wars that was heading to Bothawui in the Bothan Sector that was located in the Mid Rim. Bothawui was strategically a very important world to the Empire, because first and foremost its shipyards. Secondly it has a huge population on the planet; estimated over a billion civilians living there in a number of different cities across the surface of the planet, most of those were Bothans and not humans. Other species especially had to be controlled and enslaved for the Empire. Once the garrison had been set up, and they had successfully established control; they would then call for reinforcements and strengthen their hold over this sector.

* * *

Garm Bel Iblis had returned to the _Iziz_, and he made his way to the bridge as quickly as he could.  
"Senator," One of his officers called out the moment he came onto the bridge. He could see through the forward viewport that there was indeed a large ship of some sort approaching the planet in the distance.  
"Senator," The officer repeated, sounding rather uneasy.  
Garm glanced at him and hurried over to him. He could see he was stood at one of the consoles looking at the screen. The officer was called Mikk Sann, a male human.  
"The radar has picked up that it's a Venator Class Star Destroyer," Mikk told him sounding rather uneasy.  
There was a pause. Garm frowned as he looked down at the screen. This could be a problem. "Is it just the one Star Destroyer?"  
"Yes sir," he replied.  
"Sir we are receiving message from the Star Destroyer," Another voice said from a few feet away.  
Garm glanced up away from the screen and looked a few feet ahead. There was a deck officer called Vern dressed in uniform was stood at another console.  
Garm thought about it. "Answer it." _Delaying tacti__cs_, he thought to himself. He walked over to Vern and he took a step to the side to let him look. There was a human male dressed in black uniform on the screen. He could hear background noise.  
"Who is this I am speaking to?" The man said rather sternly.  
"General Iblis," Garm told him, rather than using the title of Senator. It could arouse suspicion.  
"I see," The man said and he paused for a moment. "My name is Admiral Seren. Von Seren of the Imperial Navy." The man looked away from the screen for a few seconds. "Hang on General, I will return in a few moments." The screen went blank before Garm could say anything.  
"What's that all about?" Garm Bel Iblis said aloud.  
"Senator, the _Tantive IV_ has entered space, and is approaching us," Mikk reported from his console.  
_Ah, now it makes sense._ Garm thought. _That's why the Admiral had to go—his ship has detected the other ship exiting the planet's atmosphere and they want to stop it before it enters lightspeed._Garm thought to himself.

* * *

Admiral Seren was standing on the bridge of his Star Destroyer called the _Redondo_. Alongside Seren was the Imperial ambassador, called Piani Solman who will be taking over an eye on the Abregado-Rae government temporarily to implement new laws and regulations across the planet and system.  
"That looks like a Corellian Corvette," One of the crew members remarked. "What is it doing out here?"  
"I don't know, but we will find out". Von Seren said, frowning.  
Piani cleared his throat. "You should conduct a search on both ships Admiral". He suggested.  
"I already had that idea in mind". Von Seren replied. "I am waiting for one of Lord Vader's Inquisitors to arrive; to do the interrogation. We will find these Jedi."

* * *

The _New Hope_ dropped out of lightspeed, followed by a single freighter carrying extra supplies for when they arrive at their destination. The planet ahead of them was called Rinn; from up above in space it looked as though there were numerous green lush continents broken up by large oceans.  
"It looks nice," Ahsoka remarked as she looked at it from her console.  
They were almost immediately contacted by the freighter. A Klatooninan had appeared on the screen. He was wearing uniform.  
"My name is Rosh," He introduced himself, he didn't sound very enthusiastic. "I am in charge of this freighter. Where do you want me to drop these supplies off?"  
"We have not yet chosen somewhere to go on the planet yet," Grievous said.

Grievous and a number of Jedi boarded the _Lapiz Cutter _to go down into the planet's atmosphere while two other Jedi; K'Kruhk and Jenni Bowin—a female Zabrak Jedi Apprentice, as well as four battle droids and R3-T4 got into another shuttle. Grievous sat in the pilot seat with Quinlan Vos sat in the co-pilot seat. The other Jedi present on the shuttle included Shaak Ti, Aayla Secura, Barriss Offee, Dango Roman—a male Arcona and he was a Jedi Knight, and finally Sarke Bolon—a male Bothan who was an apprentice, were coming along for the inspection of the planet. Grievous turned on the engine after the hangar bay doors had opened and they lifted off the ground. Ahead of them were the remaining shuttles and the last of the vulture droid star fighters. Grievous turned the shuttle around and they flew out of the hangar bay and into space. The other shuttle followed after them.

After Grievous and the other Jedi had left, Mace Windu, Ahsoka and Yoda were still on the bridge along with the battle droids.  
"Do you think is the right planet for the Jedi to stay hidden from the Empire to give ourselves time to rebuild?" Windu asked, looking at Master Yoda.  
Master Yoda had his eyes closed. "A place it is to live and hide from the Emperor," He opened his eyes and glanced up at Master Windu.  
Windu narrowed his eyes briefly. "When the Jedi Order has been restored, will you be resuming your role as Grand Master?"  
Master Yoda was silent for a few seconds. He shook his head. "Step down I do, a new leader will be elected as Grand Master, when the time is right."  
Windu kept a stern face; he was surprised but he kept it out of his tone of voice.  
"A new home, a new start, it is," Master Yoda said. He closed his eyes again; he sensed a disturbance in the Force. It was distant.  
"What is it?" Windu asked him.  
"In danger, the children of Padme and Anakin might be," Yoda said. "Meditate on this, I will." He said as he finally opened his eyes.  
Windu nodded his head. "Would we be able to contact them?"  
"Maybe," Ahsoka said, overhearing the conversation. "Did Bail Organa give you his contact details?"  
"He may have done," Windu replied, trying to recall the events when they had met Bail Organa.

* * *

Both the _Tantive IV_ and the _Iziz_ were still in space preparing to leave the Abregado system but the Star Destroyer was still here. Bail Organa was on the bridge of the Corellian Corvette. He could feel the sweat on his body and the tension growing as he stared at the small screen. Moments ago the Imperial Admiral had contacted them, and he had recognised Bail Organa. He demanded that he wanted to conduct a search; to see if there were any Jedi on board either ship before departing the system and also do an interrogation of some of the crew and diplomats to see if they know the whereabouts of the Jedi or Separatists.  
"This could take a while," Bail said under his breath as he looked at the screen's console. The Venator Class Star Destroyer started to move towards them, edging closer with every passing moment.  
"Senator their sending two landing squads to our ships," One of the deck officers informed him, his voice sounded rather tense.  
"How long till they get here?" Bail asked him.  
The officer shrugged his shoulders. "Just a couple minutes. Doesn't really matter, we can't escape now or they will put a bounty on us."  
"Inform everybody on board of what they are planning," Bail said. "Tell the crew, as quickly as you can." He turned around and dashed off the bridge.

* * *

The shuttle hit the planet's atmosphere, they were suddenly surrounded by clouds; they couldn't see anything ahead for the moment. But the on board sensors would warn them if they got too close to the surface while going at such a rapid speed. After a few seconds they came out of the clouds and could now see the surface of the planet. Directly ahead of them was lush jungle, with high trees reaching high up into the sky. Beyond the jungle there was a clearing, that looked like a beach; because beyond that was an ocean that ran all the way to the horizon and beyond.  
"Looks pleasant," Dango Roman remarked.  
"Might be able to do some fishing," Sarke Bolon said, out of turn perhaps and quickly added, "In my spare time that is."  
"I don't see why not," Quinlan Vos replied. They were now passing over the ocean, on the horizon they could start to see the start of another continent.  
Barriss Offee closed her eyes, starting to go into a meditative state. She started to reach out into the Force to get a feel for the planet. She could feel everyone on both this shuttle and the other one following closely behind. She could feel the Force flowing through her body as she continued to submerse herself into the force. She could sense the life beneath the ocean; creatures of species, Barriss had never encountered before. She could feel the life from all over the planet.  
"There's a temple," Quinlan Vos said.  
Barriss opened her eyes slowly.  
"There is a clearing around it," Grievous said. He then switched on the intercom. "This looks like a good place to start looking. Prepare for landing."  
"Yes… of course," The voice of K'Kruhk came through, not sounding to clear—some sort of interference perhaps.

Both shuttles landed on the soft ground, a distance away from the temple. The entry ramps of both shuttles came down. Sarke Bolon and Dango Roman came down one of the ramps, one after the other; both holding glowrods. Sarke felt there was a breeze in the air, as he walked along the ground. Directly ahead, about ten or more feet was the edge of the jungle. The jungle for the most part was dense trees, apart from a road that seemed to go through the jungle to somewhere; the road went off in another direction that was hidden from view.  
"Where do you think that goes?" Sarke said, pointing it out.  
"I'm not sure," Dango replied.  
"Once we've decided that this temple is adequate, we can start transporting the other Jedi down here, and then we will be able to explore the planet. Learn about it." Quinlan Vos said as he walked down the ramp and over to them. The rest of the squad exited the shuttle after him. They walked around the shuttle to the entrance of the temple and waited until Coleman Kcaj, K'Kruhk and the droids joined them. The temple was quite large, not as big as the Jedi temple, but still fairly impressive. It was an enormous structure that rose up high into the sky; it looked like some sort of Ziggurat. The temple was made out of stone apart from the spire that was connected to the temple's roof that was made out of some stronger material. The temple's entrance was directly ahead of them. A few feet away from the temple's entrance were two statues of two beings of the same species; a humanoid species. One of the statues was holding a spear of some sort and the other a shield. K'Kruhk and Jenni Bowin were both holding two glowrods; one in each hand. They handed them out to some of the Jedi.  
"Right, now we can decide what to do". Quinlan Vos said. "We can't all go in the temple; some of us have to stay out here to keep both an eye on the shuttles and to stay in contact with the _New Hope_".  
"I will stay out here then," Shaak Ti said, offering.  
"I will as well," Sarke Bolon said.  
"Now that has been sorted, we can go inside and explore the temple". Grievous said.  
"Of course," Vos replied. "Let's get going then".  
Shaak Ti and Sarke stayed behind while the others started to walk to the temple's entrance.  
"What species is that?" Dango Roman said, pointing at the statues as they approached them. They stopped to take a closer look at them. K'Kruhk looked at the base of one of the statues; there was an inscription written there. Unsurprisingly it wasn't written in basic; it was written in an alien language. There were signs that there had been a bronze like coating, but after inspecting from a closer angle most of it had worn away over time, and had noticed there were cracks in both statues after a couple of minutes of looking at both.  
"I don't know," K'Kruhk said, referring to the species. "I don't recognise them".  
"An extinct species perhaps," Barriss Offee suggested.  
"Perhaps," Vos said. "We might find some information inside the temple that will tell us about this race".  
"You could be right there," K'Kruhk said.  
They then carried on walking over to the temple entrance. There were two double doors, fairly tall and grand. There were designs carved on the doors showing various pictures of weapons, planets and more of this unknown species. There was a panel that stood out in the middle section of the two doors; it looked like it could be the thing that could open the door.  
"Fascinating," Grievous said. "Do you sense anything or anyone in there?" He said, turning to look at K'Kruhk standing beside him.  
After a few seconds, K'Kruhk shook his head.  
"Doesn't seem to be anyone here on the planet at all," Grievous remarked.  
"No sentient life at all," K'Kruhk said. "Someone must have made this temple though".  
"How do we get this open then?" Dango Roman said, sounding rather eager and impatient.  
"I don't know yet, be patient," K'Kruhk said, glancing over at the younger Jedi. He turned to look at the door again.  
"Let me try then," Dango said.  
K'Kruhk turned to study him. He could sense the younger man's eagerness and determination to prove the other Jedi wrong. K'Kruhk nodded his head. "Go ahead." He stepped aside, and allowed Dango room to look at it. Dango studied it for a few minutes. He then placed both hands on the door; it felt cold beneath his palms. He then slowly moving towards the panel in the centre. He placed his right hand on the panel, and kept it there for a few seconds. Nothing happened.  
"Hmm." Dango sighed as he took his hand off it. "I don't know." He said, shrugging his shoulders.  
"You've only been trying for a couple of seconds," Vos said.  
"Ok," Dango replied. He placed both hands on the door and he let the Force flow through him. He then placed one hand on the panel; still letting the Force channel through his body. He suddenly felt movement beneath his hands. He immediately opened his eyes and watched the doors open sideways. He felt a ghostly air hit him straight in the face. He saw a dark corridor before him.  
"Congratulations on opening the door," This was Vos.  
Dango gleamed. "It's alright."  
"Yes well done," K'Kruhk said enthusiastically.

* * *

As soon as the imperial ship had docked alongside the _Tantive _the imperial troops had come aboard; chaos had ensued or at least organised chaos. The imperial soldiers had started walking up and down each corridor; interrogating every crew member they came across. They had then taken Padme, Bail Organa and Mon Mothma back to their ship unarmed for a private talk with Von Seren on his starship.

They were now walking up one of the corridors of the Star Destroyer towards the bridge with an escort of about six troopers—which looked like clone troopers, and one man in black uniform. The man in uniform had introduced himself as; Dek Houter and had said that they were to be taken to Von Seren as guests, not prisoners. They eventually reached the doors that led to the bridge; there were two more male officers stood by the side of the door. The door opened, revealing the long bridge of the star destroyer. There were three men stood towards the front of the bridge, one Bail recognised as Garm Bel Iblis, and the other two he didn't recognise. They approached them silently.  
"Ah it is an honour to meet you all," Von Seren said, surging forwards with an outstretched hand.  
Bail took it cautiously and nodded his head.  
"We can skip the formalities." Mon Mothma said icily.  
Von Seren looked straight at her, his eyes narrowing. "I'm just doing my job. I don't have anything against you personally. "He said stepping forwards. "I could just decide to arrest you, throw you in the detention cells and take you back to Coruscant."  
"I apologise," Mon Mothma said reluctantly.  
"Good, I'm glad you see it my way." Von Seren said. "Now as you probably know the Empire has put a bounty on the remaining Jedi because they are traitors. Before the end of the clone wars, you were friends with the Jedi."  
"So what…even if we say we don't know where the Jedi are, you won't take out word for it." Mon Mothma replied.  
Von Seren grinned. "That's true, but I'm not the one going to be conducting the interrogation. One of Vader's Inquisitors will be arriving shortly. For now you will stay here."  
"Ah," Garm Bel Iblis said, sounding confused. "What are they?"  
"Dark side adepts of Lord Vader," Seren said, sounding confident.  
Garm's face fell. He suddenly felt drained and trapped. There is no way they could deceive a dark side user.  
"You mean we will stay here as prisoners then?" Padme said.  
"Well, I don't want you to feel like prisoners," Seren replied, shrugging his shoulders. "Make yourself feel at home. Take them to the detention cells."  
"You can't be serious?" Mothma said, raising her voice.  
"I am very serious Senator," Seren replied.  
The Imperial escort led them off the bridge to the detention centre. Von Seren stood there quietly. He knew they couldn't object to his demands because they were unarmed, and if they wanted they could detain both their ships or destroy them however he would see fit. So really they were prisoners; his prisoners. The thing is they need to be kept alive; at least for now because they are the closest link they have to finding the Jedi.

* * *

At the front of the group were two battle droids; there was enough room to walk in twos and they were clutching their blaster rifles and the rest of them followed with the other two battle droids bringing up the rear. The only source of light for the moment was their own glowrods that they had brought with them. It was quiet as they walked inside the temple, apart from the sound of their own footsteps and the sounds of the droids. They continued walking silently, for a few minutes until they reached another door. K'Kruhk stood behind the battle droids alongside Aayla Secura, who was holding one of the glowrods. The dim light shined; illuminating parts of the door and darkness around them. K'Kruhk could just about see another one of those panel things on the door.  
"Shine the glowrod on the panel," K'Kruhk instructed Aayla Secura.  
"Okay," Secura replied. She shone the glowrod at the panel. The panel looked similar to the main temple doors.  
K'Kruhk reached out towards it with an outstretched hand, and he pressed his hand against it. He opened himself to the Force he couldn't sense anything on the other side as expected and then the door began to open sideways like an airlock door. He opened his eyes. The corridor ahead was dark. If there had been an unknown race living inside these walls then there must be a power source of some sort; unless they were living in the darkness which doesn't sound very productive but anything is possible. They walked through the doorway and into the new corridor. They continued walking for about another few minutes until they reached a three way fork in the corridor. They could either carry on going ahead, left or right.  
"Which way do we go?" One of the battle droids asked.  
"We need to reach their control room, and get the power back on, if it's possible," Quinlan Vos said.  
"That could be in any direction though," Grievous said.  
"We could split into groups," Aayla Secura suggested.  
"Not a bad idea, some of us do have commlinks on us to contact each other." Quinlan Vos said.  
"Okay then. The two battle droids continue heading straight on. One battle droid head left, and the other head right." Grievous said. "I will head straight on along with R3-T4 and anyone else who wants to come along."  
"I will," This was from Quinlan Vos, a few feet behind Grievous.  
"I will go left then with Jenni, Dango and the battle droid." K'Kruhk said. "Leaving Aayla and Barriss too head down the corridor on the right."  
They then broke up into their smaller groups to continue exploring the temple.

* * *

Bail Organa, Padme Amidala, Garm Bel Iblis and Mon Mothma were now stood in a holding cell on the Star Destroyer. They could see part of the steel grey corridor ahead of them but not much else.  
"We could be here for a long time," Garm sighed, shaking his head.  
"Their probably recording everything we're saying as well," Bail said.  
"So, all we can do is wait then," Padme said, sounding defeated. She lowered herself to the ground. They waited in silence as time went by. Padme thought of her children, Luke and Leia that were aboard the _Tantive IV. _They were being looked after by Artoo, See-Threepio and the crew. Padme didn't want to be away from her children for too long, she was finding it difficult to relax. It was hard to relax in a situation like this.


	16. Final Chapter

Chapter 16

While Grievous and the others were exploring Rinn, the crew on the freighter that had come with them; had grown tired of waiting in orbit to land on the surface and had landed in the hangar bay of the _New Hope_. Of course the captain had informed the enormous cruiser his attentions, because they had to lower the shields. "I should have done this before." The captain said, more to himself than his crew members.  
"Never mind," the co-pilot replied. "They expect you to be patient like them."  
"True," The captain said, sighing. "Let's get this over with." They both got up from their seats and made their way into the main cabin. The co-pilot went to lower the ramp, while the captain started moving the small crates of supplies towards the ramp. To try and save time he carried one of the crates and kicked the other, to move it forwards.  
"You alright with that?" The co-pilot said, when he walked past him.  
"Yes thank you." The other man replied. He came to the top of the ramp; he saw an Ongree stood with a female Zabrak waiting a couple of feet away. Both were wearing Jedi like robes. The Ongree Jedi raised his right hand and the crate by his feet lifted off the ground and floated all the way towards the two Jedi and finally resting on the ground beside them. "Cheers." _Typical_, he thought. He'll be glad when this is over.

Two clone troopers and an officer came to the prison cell, and looked down at prisoners for a few moments.  
"We're going to escort you back up to the bridge," The officer said with a sharp tone of voice.  
Bail Organa and the other senators glanced at each other; not having a plan to get out of this mess. They waited silently as one of the troopers opened the cell.  
"Come out one at a time," The officer said.  
Bail and the others shared glances, and he stood up first. He was first to walk out of the prison cell and into the corridor. The others followed one by one.

* * *

Since they had split up into smaller groups, they had covered more ground in the temple. Grievous and his group had passed through one other corridor. Even though there was no one here, Quinlan Vos and the other Jedi could feel the power within the place; filled with unknown secrets that they hoped to discover soon.

They soon came to the end of their second corridor, with another set of doors in front of them.  
"Hmm." Vos said.  
"I hope there is a control room." Grievous said, sounding hopeful. "It would make this exploring easier."  
"Even if we find one, would we be able to use it?" Vos said, sounding rather less enthusiastic.  
Grievous remained silent as Vos opened the door. They walked through the doorway, and walked in a couple of feet until suddenly the whole corridor was light up by lights. Except it wasn't a corridor; it was a room, a large one at that. There were consoles and stations that went around the room that were up against the wall. In the middle of the room there was an upright device of some sort; it looked similar to a holographic projector.  
"Fascinating," Quinlan Vos said as he walked over to the upright device. He took out his comlink device and contacted the other Jedi in the temple. "Master K'Kruhk, we have found something that you will want to take a look at."  
"Alright, we'll come in a few minutes." K'Kruhk replied.

* * *

Bail and the other senators were brought onto the bridge where Admiral Von Seren was waiting for them. Next to him was a cloaked man presumably the Sith Inquisitor, Bail thought.  
"Admiral," The officer said, as they approached them.  
Both men turned around. Bail looked into the eyes of the cloaked man; they were dark and menacing. The Inquisitor grinned, he could feel the fear coming from their prisoners.  
"You have one last chance, to tell us where the Jedi are by your own admission," Von Seren said.  
Bail looked at Mon Mothma; who looked calm, then at Garm who was on edge. Finally his eyes fell on Padme; even without the Force, he could see that she was nervous and full of fear. "Or Zindo will get it out of you."  
"Forget giving them another chance," The Sith Inquisitor said. He took a step towards them.  
"You don't have to do this…" Padme said her voice breaking.  
Zindo came towards her, his eyes menacing. Zindo raised his right hand, clamping an invisible hand on Padme. Padme screamed at the top of her voice, as he continued to force his way into her mind; to break her. Padme fell down onto her knees, with her eyes running down her cheeks.  
"Where are the Jedi?" Zindo demanded. His voice was sharp and his tone ice cold. He stopped his invisible attack.  
"I…don't know," Padme answered.  
Zindo then clenched his fist, grasping an invisible hand around her throat. She began clutching for her air.  
"Stop this!" Garm Bel Iblis shouted and was about to charge at the Sith Inquisitor but suddenly Zindo stopped Force choking Padme, and looked at Garm Bel Iblis. Then an invisible hand grabbed a hold of Garm Bel Iblis, lifted him off the ground and then tossed him at the wall nearby. The other two senators gasped as they watched Garm fall on the ground in a heap. Garm shifted slowly; he was alive. Zindo looked back at the other prisoners.  
"I could kill all of you, or just one of you," Zindo said icily. "Tell me where the Jedi are and you're free to go. Can't you get that into your thick skulls?"  
Bail Organa sighed. "They've gone to the Outer Rim." He looked over at Garm, who slowly got back to his feet.  
"Where?" Zindo exclaimed. He had lost what little patience he had; he raised his hand again and he grabbed an invisible hand on Padme while she was on the floor.  
"He will only stop when he has been given the answers we need," Von Seren said.  
Padme gasped for air and collapsed onto the ground lying on her back. Zindo stopped Force choking Padme , and a red orange beam shot out of his hand and went straight into Padme; Force Drain. It started to drain the very life out of Padme.  
"To Nar Shaddaa, I think," Bail exclaimed.  
Zindo looked at Bail, narrowing his eyes. He continued to Force Drain Padme's life. She was starting to go pale now.  
"I'm telling the truth," Bail argued.  
Zindo stopped his Force Drain on Padme and stood there contemplating as Mon Mothma kneeled down beside Padme. "Politicians are known for their lies, and half truths. You are probably used to it by now. We will be heading to Nar Shaddaa. Three of you will be free to return to your ships." He looks at Mon Mothma. "She will come with us. And we will all go to Nar Shaddaa."  
"They might not be there now," Garm said, wincing.  
"We'll find them." Zindo said.  
"It's a bargain, either one of you stays, or all of you stay as prisoners." Von Seren said, shrugging his shoulders.  
"I'll stay here then," Bail said. "Let the others return to their ship."  
"Fine, I don't care." Zindo said. "Take them back to their ship." He motioned to the nearby troops.

* * *

"It appears as though this is the only room that has power," Jenni Bowin said.  
"Don't presume anything," K'Kruhk said. "We don't know how big this temple this is. It could go underground." He was examining one of the machines in the room. It had a screen, with controls and buttons underneath.  
"What do you think this does then?" Dango Roman asked no one in particular as he stared at the device in the middle of the room. It had buttons and controls on its side. It had instructions written on it, but they were in an unknown alien language.  
"We can't be certain," Quinlan Vos said.  
"Well then maybe we should just try it and see what happens," Jenni said walking towards it.  
"No, don't be too hasty," K'Kruhk lectured.  
"There is no other way to find out what it does," Quinlan Vos argued.  
"Alright." K'Kruhk held his hands up. "Do it then." He said cautiously, glancing at Jenni then Vos.  
Jenni stepped towards it, stopped short as Vos placed a firm hand on her shoulder.  
"I will do it." Vos said. He pulled Jenni back, and then stepped closer to the device. There were only a couple buttons to choose from. One of the buttons was slightly bigger than the rest, and it was circular in shape unlike the others that were rectangular. Quinlan Vos like a few members of his species had the ability to read objects called Psychometry. He gently touched the device with his hand, and opened himself up to the Force. He could see a very faint vision; it was the same room thousands of years ago. In the vision he saw these aliens stood in the same room they were in now, the aliens were mammalian, dressed wearing simple clothes. They were talking to each other in their own language for a few moments, they sounded distressed—it was hard to tell. Then one of them put something in the device in the middle of the room, a recording of some sort. Then the vision faded. Quinlan Vos opened his eyes.  
"What did you see?" Barriss Offee asked him.  
"The aliens that built the temple were a mammalian humanoid species; I've never seen them before. The vision was brief but one alien put something in this device. I think it was a recording of some sort." Quinlan Vos surmised.  
"Of what?" Grievous queried.  
"I don't know." Vos shrugged his shoulders. "We'll find out." He touched the button. Nothing happened.  
"Great," Dango remarked.  
"Be patient," K'Kruhk countered.  
Vos looked at the machine again and pressed the button and this time he held it down. Then it suddenly came to life, Vos took a step away from it. The device initially showed them an holographic image of what looked like the same alien species that Vos had seen in the vision. The hologram was speaking in its own language. Then the image changed showing an image of starship, then it changed again showing another alien of another species.  
"What's that?" Jenni Bowin asked.  
"I'm not sure," K'Kruhk said. It looked humanoid, light brown skin.  
While the images were being shown, the alien voice kept on speaking. The image changed again to another species. This third alien species was an amphibian looking species, with blue coloured skin.  
"That's a Selkath," Aayla Secura remarked. "Maybe they know what this is about."  
"Perhaps," Vos said as the image changed again to another starship of some sort. The image changed again, this time showing a space station over an unfamiliar planet, while the alien voice continued speaking.  
"Maybe they were a part of a space fairing empire," Dango said.  
"Possible," Vos nodded his head in agreement.  
Then the image changed again, showing another planet unfamiliar. The alien voice said something then the message finished, and the device turned off.  
"Incredible," Jenni remarked.  
"We should start transporting some of the Jedi here, with their belongings." Grievous said.  
"Do you think the Selkath would know anything about this temple?" Barriss Offee asked, looking at Vos then at K'Kruhk.  
"Yes, it would be worth giving them a visit on Manaan," K'Kruhk said.  
"Let's return to the _New Hope_," Vos said.

They exited the temple and returned to the shuttles to find Shaak Ti and Sarke Bolon waiting in one of the shuttles. They came out to greet them.  
"It's hard to get around in the temple as all the writing is written in some sort of alien language. We found a device that had a recorded message in it. We couldn't really understand the message apart from learning that they were a spacefaring nation, but also more importantly it has something to do with the Selkath." Quinlan Vos told them.  
"That is interesting," Shaak Ti remarked.  
"Is it worth living in then?" Sarke Bolon asked the others.  
"Hopefully," Aayla Secura replied.  
They entered the shuttles, and prepared to return to the _New Hope_ in orbit.

* * *

Windu felt the disturbance in the Force while he was on the bridge of the _New Hope_, it was distant. He couldn't pinpoint what it was. He looked over at Ahsoka Tano, who turned around from her station. She looked confused.  
"What is it Padawan Tano?" Windu asked her.  
"Master I think its Padme," Ahsoka replied. "She was in pain."  
Windu nodded his head, deciding what to do. "Do you think we should go and help them?" He heard the bridge doors open. He turned and saw Master Yoda stood in the doorway. He made his way onto the bridge.  
"Senator Amidala in pain, she was," Yoda said.  
"Should we go to her?" Ahsoka asked them both.  
Windu was about to say yes, but then saw Yoda shake his head. "No. Coming to us, they are."  
"Why?" Windu said, frowning.  
"To Nar Shaddaa, they go." Yoda replied.  
"We should go and see if they need our help," Windu said.  
Master Yoda nodded in agreement.

* * *

Indeed Mon Mothma, Garm Bel Iblis and Padme had returned to their ships, but Padme had been rushed to the medbay on the _Tantive IV_ because she had collapsed as soon as she had stepped onto the Corvette. There wasn't a doctor on board and they just basic medicine, so she would need medical attention. Mon Mothma had gone to the bridge, to tell the pilots and the captain to head to Nar Shaddaa.  
"The Venator class Star Destroyer is preparing to enter lightspeed Senator," One of the deck officers had informed her.  
"We need to leave now then," Mothma had replied. "Tell Senator Garm Bel Iblis that we will rendezvous at Nar Shaddaa."  
"Yes senator," the officer had replied.  
That had been about ten minutes ago. Mon Mothma was now sat in the conference room, alone. Her mind was racing; worrying about Padme and Bail Organa. She sat silently for a few moments. The Venator Star Destroyer had left before they had, so hopefully they would arrive before the Sith and the Empire could kill the Jedi. Of course that depended on whether or not the Jedi were still on Nar Shaddaa. Mon Mothma got to her feet, and headed to the room where Padme was unconscious. She was still out cold. The Sith had done a lot of damage to Padme internally using the Force, and she might not ever recover from it. She turned around, walking out of the room and into the Mothma walked up the corridor, and into one of the other rooms finding both Padme's children; Luke and Leia sleeping in their beds with R2-D2 and C3-PO watching closely.  
"Hmm, maybe the protocol droid should have its mind wiped." She said under her breath.  
"Hello, Senator," C3-PO said turning around, finally noticing her. R2-D2 also twooted in acknowledging her response. "Is Miss Padme all right?"  
"Hi," Mon Mothma replied. "She is still unconscious I'm afraid."  
"Oh dear, I see," C3-P0 said. He looked at Artoo, who twooted solemnly.  
Mon Mothma turned and walked out of the room.

* * *

As soon as Grievous and the Jedi had returned, the Masters and Grievous had gone up to the bridge.  
"General, we should head to Nar Shaddaa," Windu said. "Bail Organa and the other senators are heading there now."  
Grievous contemplated it for a moment. "Why don't you tell them to come here?"  
"In trouble they are," Yoda said.  
"Fine we will head there now then," Grievous said.  
"Good," Windu replied.  
"Set co-ordinates for Nar Shaddaa, again." Grievous said. "Prepare to enter lightspeed."  
"Yes general," one of the battle droids replied.  
"You better inform that freighter that came with us to leave." Grievous said, looking over at Ahsoka at her station.  
"It has already left," Ahsoka said. "The ship's captain got bored of waiting, so he dropped off all the supplies here in the hangar bay and then left."  
"Good," Grievous replied.

* * *

"It won't take too long to reach Nar Shaddaa," Von Seren said a few feet away from Bail. He was still on the bridge with the Admiral and the Sith. They had immediately left for Nar Shaddaa, leaving the _Tantive IV _and the _Iziz _behind in the Abregado system.  
"Admiral, we have contacted the _Swarm_ at the Kuat shipyards. They will be making their way to Nar Shaddaa as support." One of the officers said.  
"Good." Von Seren said.  
"We will find the Jedi," Zindo said. He looked at Bail Organa. "As long as they are on Nar Shaddaa."  
"Nar Shaddaa is a huge place, how will you find them?" Bail asked him.  
"If there is a lot of them especially if there are younglings down on the surface, they can't all hide from me." Zindo replied, looking directly at Bail. A wicked, sinister grin appeared on his face.  
"We might even negotiate with the Hutts to help us find the Jedi," Von Seren said.  
"Why bother with them?" Zindo said sharply.  
"Because they are the rulers over the Hutt sector." Von Seren answered him. "It would be unwise to get on their bad side."  
"You are right there." Zindo agreed with him.

* * *

Time seemed to go slow for them, they were on the move again. Aayla Secura was meditating in one of the rooms on the _New Hope_. She wondered, like most of the remaining Jedi wondered whether or not the Jedi would return to their home on Coruscant. And whether or not the Republic would be restored. She tried to not think about it, but it was hard not to wonder about it. She sensed a familiar presence nearby and then she heard the door open. She opened her eyes and saw Coleman Kcaj stood in the doorway. He stepped into the room.  
"Hello Master Kcaj," Secura said, smiling briefly.  
"Hello Aayla," Kcaj came into the small room. "You seem distant. What is on your mind?"  
"I was just thinking if we would ever return to Coruscant," Secura told him honestly.  
"We will do one day," Kcaj replied. "Maybe not myself personally, but the Jedi will yes. The Republic will one day be restored. You just have to be patient for the right time and we will see what happens then."  
Aayla nodded her head. "We shall see."

* * *

Eventually the _New Hope_ dropped out of lightspeed, once again in the Y'toub System. They could see the moon of Nar Shaddaa in the distance.  
"Once again we've arrived at Nar Shaddaa," Grievous said.  
The huge Trade Federation cruiser continued to its journey to Nar Shaddaa in sublight drive.  
It didn't take too long to reach Nar Shaddaa and they went into orbit over it. They waited for several moments silently. One of the alarms on the ship went off.  
"What is it?" Grievous demanded, looking at the battle droids.  
"General, a Venator Class Star Destroyer has just dropped out of lightspeed." One of the battle droids answered him, while another droid turned off the alarm at his station.  
"Turn us around immediately" Grievous exclaimed.  
"Yes general," Another droid responded.

* * *

As they approached Nar Shaddaa, Von Seren inwardly breathed a sigh of relief and content as he saw the Trade Federation Cruiser turning around towards them.  
"That's them," Seren said defiantly. "It must be."  
Zindo looked over at his prisoner, the senator; he could sense the unease and alarm rising up in him.  
"I would say so," Zindo said, turning to look forwards again. "Hard to tell how many are on board, or whether or not some are on the surface. We need to engage them now."  
"Yes," Seren replied. He walked over to the intercom. "Launch the first and second squadron of starfighters!" His voice boomed all around the star destroyer. "Attack the Trade Federation Cruiser ahead of our current position. We need the officers to get to their turrets to engage with the enemy."  
"Right away sir," His main officer replied.  
Seren walked back over to Zindo.  
"This won't be easy," Zindo said.  
"That's why we have called in backup." Seren said, just as he had finished speaking; the alarm on the bridge went off.  
"Sir, two ships have dropped out of lightspeed." One of the officers replied.  
"Two?" Seren said, he was confused. Then he realised. "The two ships we left behind."  
"Yes that is correct," The officer replied.  
"We should have blown them into pieces when we had the chance," Seren said, shaking his head.  
"They can't destroy us, unless they want to kill their friend." The officer said.  
"That is true," Seren said, looking over at Organa.  
"Then they aren't going to attack. Maybe we can use him as some sort of bargaining tool." The officer said.  
"The Jedi aren't stupid, they won't fall for any of your tricks." Bail Organa exclaimed.  
"No they aren't that stupid," Zindo said grinning.

* * *

Even before the other two starships had arrived; Grievous had been slightly concerned in engaging probably a brand new warship of the Empire. Especially considering that the _New Hope_ hasn't had an upgrade for a while. Or that the starfighter squadrons and crew had yet been replaced. When the second two starships had arrived, Grievous was pacing.  
"This could be bad," Grievous said under his breath as he looked at the screen.  
"Sir one of the two ships is the Corvette that Bail Organa was using," One of the battle droids said.  
"Really?" Grievous said, looking up.  
"Right, the droid is," Yoda said. "Sense Padme Amidala, I do."  
"So now we have the advantage," Grievous said.  
"Actually, that might not be the case." Windu replied before he had a chance to explain, an alarm went off on the bridge.  
"General, the Venator star destroyer is contacting us." One of the battle droids informed them.  
"Answer it, put it on the main top screen," Grievous said. "So we can all see why."  
Within a couple of seconds, a man in imperial uniform appeared on the screen.  
"Ah General Grievous," The man sounded slightly surprised. "We have something of yours." He disappeared off screen. A moment later Senator Bail Organa appeared on the screen.  
"Senator Bail Organa!" Ahsoka gasped.  
"Don't fall for their tricks. There is a Sith on board." Bail Organa warned them.  
"That's enough now talk," Someone off screen said. Bail Organa was then dragged off screen and the original man was on the screen.  
"My name is Von Seren, and today I will finish you all off. Surrender or be destroyed. That is your choice. This isn't open to negotiation." Seren said sounding confident. "You have thirty minutes to decide, and if you don't decide before then. You will all be destroyed." The screen then went blank.  
"We need to think of a plan, quickly." Ahsoka said.  
"General they are starting to send out fighters." One of the droids informed them.  
"We're running out of time." Ahsoka said. "We shouldn't have come here."  
"Killed, Senator Organa, they would have." Master Yoda said.  
"Okay," Ahsoka replied.  
"Send out our own starfighters," Grievous gave the order. "We aren't going to surrender to them. We're going to take their ship."

* * *

Garm Bel Iblis stood on the bridge of the _Iziz_, deciding what to do. He could see the Trade Federation Cruiser up ahead, but the star destroyer was blocking their way. "We should message the Jedi," One of the crew members suggested.  
"We can't destroy the star destroyer, but maybe we could cripple it." Another crew member on the bridge suggested.  
"But they could kill him," Garm said. "As soon as we open fire."  
"Hang on though, if they do kill him, they lose their advantage." The same officer said. "We would then be able to destroy the star destroyer without too much difficulty."  
Garm thought about it. "I don't know about that. It's a huge risk on Bail's life. But we can't sit and wait for them to destroy the Jedi into oblivion."

* * *

"I will lead a team onto the star destroyer, and we will take it over." Grievous said continuing his decision. "I'm going to need some Jedi to help me on this mission."  
"I will go with you," Coleman Kcaj said instantly.  
"I will also go with you," Luminara Unduli said.  
"We will take one of the other shuttles and head there now." Grievous said.  
"I will find some Jedi Knights who are in need of experience," Kcaj replied. Both he and Luminara Unduli made their way off the bridge as quickly as they could.  
"That's settled then." Grievous said. He turned to look at Master Windu. "You are in charge in my absence." Windu nodded in response.  
Grievous turned to look at one of his droids. "Do a life form scan of that ship, see how many are on board."  
"Yes General," the droid replied. It took a few precious minutes. "There are a couple of hundred life forms on board the star destroyer."  
Grievous nodded. "We know what we're up against now. Prepare to engage the star destroyer." Grievous then hurried off the bridge to the hangar bay.

* * *

"Time is running out for the Jedi," Seren said confidently.  
"We shall wipe them out," Zindo replied.  
"We don't know if there are more Jedi on the surface," One of the other officers said, sounding uncertain.  
"It won't matter," Seren said. "General Grievous is also on that ship. If we wipe out that ship, we'll kill him and the Jedi in one go."  
"It is important we don't let them escape." Zindo said. "We'll show the recording of the message we sent them, and of course record the ships destruction as proof. We will all be rewarded."  
Seren smiled. "Tell all starfighters to prepare to attack that Trade Federation Cruiser ahead of us."  
"They've released a few starfighters it seems." The officer replied, looking from his station.  
"It won't matter; the _Swarm _will be here too soon." Seren said confidently.

* * *

Grievous powered up the shuttle's engines; they came roaring to life. Before leaving, Grievous spoke into the secure comm channel to the bridge.  
"Tell the starfighters to attack the Venator class star destroyer," Grievous said.  
"Yes, we will do," It was Ahsoka's voice.  
"Good," Grievous replied. "We're going to need its shields being taken offline."  
"Okay," Ahsoka replied.  
Grievous turned the intercom off and started piloting the shuttle. The shuttle lifted off the ground, and soared out of the hangar bay and into space. The other Jedi that were coming on this mission were; Sarke Bolon, Barriss Offee, Dango Roman, Brinn Penn—a male human Jedi Knight and Carolyn Sosa—a human female Jedi Knight.  
"Let's hope we just get there in one piece," Grievous said.  
"May the Force be with us all." Kcaj said, sat in the co-pilot seat.  
A few moments after exiting the hangar bay, Grievous turned the shuttle to the left; the Venator class star destroyer was up ahead, preparing to engage their own cruiser. The droid starfighters were engaging with their own starfighters.  
"What's the plan?" Sarke Bolon said. "Just to take over their ship?"  
"Exactly that," Grievous answered him.  
"Sounds tricky," Brinn remarked.  
"Not with the Force," Kcaj replied. He could see the droid starfighters barraging the star destroyer with lasers. "We will deal with the Sith on board."  
"Sith? You never mentioned the Sith?" Carolyn exclaimed.  
"We didn't? Well there is a Sith on board," Kcaj said, shrugging. "I sense him there, nowhere near as strong as Anakin in the Force."  
"Yes, he shouldn't be too difficult," Luminara said.

* * *

Von Seren watched as the Trade Federation came towards them, preparing to engage each other in space combat.  
"Admiral, our sensors have picked up a shuttle that is coming right for us," One of the officers informed them from his station.  
"Blow them away," Seren replied. "It's no threat."  
"Wouldn't be too certain of that," Zindo said. For once he sounded uncertain.  
"Blow them away," Seren repeated, sounding even louder and more frustrated. "Get the starfighters on them."

* * *

Kcaj watched as an enemy starfighter came zipping past firing lasers at them. Grievous juked the shuttle to the side, almost controlling it like a starfighter.  
"Does this shuttle have weapons?" Kcaj asked Grievous.  
"Nope, it's just a transport," Grievous answered him.  
"We will have to ride the storm then." Kcaj replied.  
A second starfighter came closing in, unleashing a wave of lasers at the shuttle. Grievous reacted quickly, pulling on the yoke; pushing the shuttle almost too its limits to avoid the incoming laser fire.  
They soon started flying over the star destroyer, heading towards the hangar bay. There were turbo-batteries mounted on the star destroyer firing up at them as they passed by. The shuttle rocked violently as some lasers got a direct hit; crashing against the outer shell of the small shuttle.  
"We're nearly there," Luminara said calmly, to reassure the younger Jedi. She could sense their unease through the Force. More lasers came flashing towards them, bursting around them as they hit the shuttle. They continued to fly over the top of the star destroyer.  
"No doubt their aware of our presence," Kcaj said.  
"It doesn't matter, as long as we survive." Grievous said as he dipped the shuttle downwards slightly. They were now flying along one side of the star destroyer, towards the hangar bay. The shuttle rocked again, but they couldn't see anything ahead. "It's behind us. Great." Grievous turned the shuttle into the open hangar bay; they could see three starfighters taking off to join the battle. At the last moment Grievous lost control; they were still in shooting range from the starfighter.  
"This could be a hard landing," Kcaj warned the Knights.  
The shuttle came crashing down in the hangar bay, hitting the ground hard and finally came to a stop.

* * *

"Time is running out," Garm Bel Iblis said under his breath.  
An alarm on the bridge went off.  
"What is that?" Garm asked, his voice full of concern.  
"Not good news. I'm afraid a second Venator class Star Destroyer has just dropped out of lightspeed." The officer informed him.  
Garm felt his stomach sink, and he closed his eyes. "This can't be good. We need to get into an attack position to take on the second star destroyer."  
"Yes Senator," the same officer replied.  
"Our radars have picked up a shuttle from the Trade Federation cruiser that has gone into the star destroyer ahead of our position." One of the other crew on the bridge reported.  
Now Garm frowned, _What are the Jedi up to?_He thought to himself.

* * *

"Nice timing Admiral," Seren said in the secure video comm channel. "We've got Jedi who have infiltrated our ship."  
"That could be a problem for you," Admiral Veraz replied. "What else do I need to know?"  
"The Jedi had thirty minutes to surrender. They have only 5 minutes to surrender." Seren said.  
"By the sound of it they've made their choice," Veraz replied. "We'll blast these ships to dust."  
"Did you contact Vader or Palpatine?" Seren asked him.  
"Yes, I sent a report of where we were going and what the mission was. I said we were heading to the Hutt Sector because we were told that there were Jedi somewhere there. I didn't say Nar Shaddaa specifically, in case we were wrong." Veraz answered.  
"Good," Seren replied. "If it goes wrong, then they will know what has transpired here and send reinforcements to back us up."

* * *

As soon as the shuttle had crashed, Grievous and the Jedi had to recover quickly; getting up to their feet. Kcaj felt the sense of danger, through the Force. "There are soldiers coming for us," Kcaj said, warning him.  
"Right," Grievous said. He opened the exit ramp; it hit the ground and scraped across the floor because they didn't have time to put the landing gear down and that they were going to fast causing them to crash. They all exited the shuttle, directly ahead they saw the hangar bay exit; the doors had closed. "No way out then."  
"It would appear so," Kcaj remarked.  
They looked around at the hangar bay. It was probably not the only one on the ship; as there were only a couple of starfighters—Arc 170 starfighters and a single LAAT/I gunship that were used in the Clone Wars. On the far wall, there were two blast doors in either corner leading to various parts of the ship. Kcaj and the other Jedi got out their lightsabers, holding them but not activating them just yet. Grievous took out his two of his own lightsabers. The door in the far right hand corner opened; revealing a dozen or so Clone troopers armed with rifles and used nearby crates for cover. They started firing their blaster rifles at the Jedi and Grievous.  
"Fools," Grievous remarked. He began spinning his lightsabers in front of him at an incredible speed; sending the lasers back at the clone troopers. The clone troopers continued their rounds.  
Kcaj parried several lasers straight back at the nearest clone, who was using a crate for cover; the lasers hit him in the head, knocking him over. Kcaj then with his free hand, using the Force picked up one of the crates and launched it at the two troopers that had been behind that crate. The two troopers were thrown off their feet.

* * *

Both the _Tantive IV_ and the _Iziz_ had both turned around to face the second Venator class star destroyer to engage it. Mon Mothma was stood on the bridge of the _Tantive IV_, and had just received the word from Garm Bel Iblis that they should engage it; if it makes the first move of course. So far the star destroyer was just there waiting to strike them.  
"Senator," A male voice said from a few feet behind Mon Mothma. She turned around a saw one of the crew members standing a couple feet away. He had a concerned look on his voice. "I'm afraid  
its Senator Amidala, she's passed away."  
Mon Mothma gasped. "No, that can't be."  
"I'm afraid so, I went into check on her." He said. "Come and look if you don't believe me."  
Mon Mothma followed him back to the room. When they got there, he stepped to the side, she walked into the room and over to Padme. She felt her pulse; there was none and she couldn't hear her breathe either. She felt a tear come down her face.  
"She'll need to be returned to Naboo for a proper burial." Mon Mothma said.

* * *

Master Yoda along with the other Jedi that were stood on the bridge had felt the death of Senator Padme Amidala.  
"Terrible loss, this is," Yoda said.  
Windu nodded his head.  
Ahsoka looked away; she felt a tear in her eye. It wasn't the Jedi way to get attached to people, but she had spent quite a lot of time with Padme during the course of Clone Wars with Anakin. She used the Force to hide her emotions from the Masters.  
"What will happen to the children?" Windu asked.  
"Hmm." Yoda replied. "Uncertain, their future is."

* * *

Grievous sliced down one clone trooper with his two blades, another clone a few feet away starts shooting at the alien cyborg. Grievous dashed forwards, the trooper kept firing at Grievous and running backwards. The lasers kept deflecting off his lightsabers and going off in other directions. Grievous soon reached him; he sliced his weapon in half and then thrust the two lightsabers into the chest of the clone trooper, killing it. He looked over at Kcaj who killed the last clone trooper.  
"We've got to keep moving, till we reach the bridge," Kcaj said.  
They made their way into the corridor, and deactivated their lightsabers but keeping them out on alert. The walls were steel grey and plain. They continued walking until the corridor split into two separate directions—a 'Y', with two doors ahead.  
"Which way do we go?" Grievous said.  
"To the right," Luminara replied. "That is the direction to the bridge that I remember during the Clone Wars."

* * *

All the way on Coruscant, Vader had felt the death of his wife through the Force. He had felt annoyed and even angrier with her than himself for leaving him. He had seen her death in his vision, and he couldn't do anything about He had gone to Emperor Palpatine office.  
"Master," Vader greeted him as he came into the room.  
"Lord Vader," Palpatine replied.  
"Have the star destroyers in the Hutt Sector located the Jedi?" Vader asked.  
"Not yet. Don't worry about the Jedi for now. They are far from here. Most of the Order has been crushed, that is the most important thing. In time you will get to wipe the rest of them out." Palpatine said. "The Death Star's construction is still underway. Tarkin is there at the moment, paying a visit, making sure the work gets done."  
"That is good my lord," Vader said.  
"When we receive word that there are Jedi there, you are free to kill the lot of them. Or turn them to the darkside." Palpatine said, reassuring him, and smiled wickedly.

* * *

Von Seren was growing impatient. "Let's just destroy that ship of theirs, and then kill the Jedi on this ship." He was never a patient person, even before today; but now he was becoming concerned. He had worked for the Jedi during the Clone Wars. He had seen them fight; they were dangerous and powerful. Especially in numbers. That was the problem he faced now.  
"They will come here soon. We need to get as many troops up here to the bridge. We will need to overpower them in numbers. On my own, I can't defeat a number of Jedi. They could all be Masters or at least some of them." Zindo replied.  
"If we give out the order, the Jedi will know what we are up to." Seren said.  
"Yes but that doesn't matter," Zindo replied sharply. "We will die or at least be taken as prisoners by them if we don't kill them now."

* * *

Grievous and the Jedi hurried down another corridor, trying to get the bridge as quickly as possible. There were more troopers at the end of the corridor as well as some man dressed in black uniform. The clone troopers were armed with blaster rifles.  
"Stand down Jedi!" The man in the black uniform ordered. He was holding a blaster pistol. "We will shoot you." He warned them.  
"I'll pass on that offer," Grievous shouted back. He ignited the two lightsabers in his hands as did the Jedi. The clone troopers started firing at them. Lasers flashed towards them, some deflecting off their lightsabers; hitting the walls, floors and some going straight back to the troopers. Grievous raced forwards while still deflecting the incoming lasers from the troopers. He saw the door behind the troopers start opening; more troops would be here in seconds. Grievous came up to the nearest trooper, he swung his blades in front of him; aiming for his rifle. The clone trooper's rifle was severed in half.

Coleman Kcaj also dashed forwards; using the Force to give him extra speed, going past Grievous. He came racing down the wide corridor towards a clone trooper. The trooper continued firing his blaster rifle at the Ongree Jedi Master; pulling the trigger as many times as he could but he was too quick, the lasers were deflected because of his lightsabers. Kcaj swung the blade in front of him, catching the blaster rifle and severing it in half. Kcaj then followed through by cutting the lightsabers across the chest of the trooper causing him to fall down to the ground on his back. Kcaj moved on quickly to the next trooper. The troopers continued firing their rifles at them.

* * *

"We've also received word, that most of the Imperial governors haven't encountered much resistance from local populations." Palpatine said.  
"Good," Vader responded.  
"Our enemies will be crushed. We will be more than ready for when the Far Outsiders make their first move."  
"Far Outsiders?" Vader said, frowning.  
"It is not important for now," Palpatine replied sharply.  
Vader could tell there was obviously something that his Master wasn't telling him. He thought he would just drop it for now and bring it up at a later time; as Palpatine had made his decision.  
"At the Kuat Shipyards they have started construction on a Super Star Destroyer that will be the flagship of our new fleet". Palpatine informed him.  
Vader nodded his head, taking it all in.

* * *

Garm Bel Iblis was still waiting for the second star destroyer to make its move. It had been waiting there in space for a while now.  
"Senator their sending out their starfighters," One of the crew on the bridge informed him.  
"Get the shields up!" Garm exclaimed loudly.

* * *

Grievous and the Jedi had moved onto the next corridor; having killed or injured all the clones in the previous corridor. They were drawing closer and closer to the bridge. The corridor ahead was empty. They kept their lightsabers out, until they defeated their enemies on here.  
"Not far to the bridge now," Luminara remarked.  
"Good," Sarke Bolon said, exhaling a deep breath.  
"Too bad you're running out of energy," Dango said, a couple feet ahead. He turned his head and grinned at Sarke.  
"Don't do that," Kcaj warned him.  
"I'm only joking with him Master," Dango said, not bothering to look at Kcaj when he spoke to him.  
Kcaj just rolled his eyes and shook his head.

They came to the end of this corridor, the doors opening as they approached it. Once the door had fully opened, it revealed yet another steel grey corridor. There were four clones further up the corridor. The clones turned to face the Jedi.  
"Jedi!" One of the clones exclaimed.  
Another clone tossed a grenade in the direction of the Jedi.  
"I'll get rid of it," Sarke said, stepping forwards. He raised his free hand and Force threw it back at the clones, but as he concentrated on the detonator the clones aimed their lasers and fired at Sarke just as Barriss Offee was about to cover him. Lasers went straight into his chest and he dropped down to the ground and his lightsabers fell down to the ground beside him.  
"No!" Carolyn exclaimed. She ran over to him and kneeled beside him.  
"Sorry," Sarke said with his last breath.  
The detonator fell down on the ground in mid-flight and detonated as it hit the ground; smoke and debris going everywhere clouding everybody's vision.  
"We've got to keep moving," Kcaj exclaimed.  
There was laser fire; flashes of light coming through the light smoke. Kcaj parried an incoming laser and sent straight back at the attacker. The smoke soon cleared Grievous and the Jedi raced forwards. The three remaining stood their ground and continued firing their lasers at the Jedi, hoping to overcome them; against all odds. Grievous took out his blaster pistol and kept one lightsaber out; and fired shots towards the nearest clone trooper. The clone trooper dived for cover, while counter attacking; firing shots at Grievous. Grievous blocked the incoming lasers by swinging his lightsaber in front of him swiftly. Grievous continued firing his blaster pistol at the clone; lasers went fizzing past him and finally hit his leg making him pause. Grievous continue firing; lasers streaked into his chest making him fall down to the ground. Grievous saw Kcaj race past him towards the other clones. The Ongree Jedi soon caught up with them; cutting one down after another until there was none left. Soon after that last encounter with the clones, Grievous and the Jedi came to the bridge. The doors were a couple of feet away guarded by more clone troopers and an officer.  
"Stop right there!" The officer shouted.

* * *

Von Seren could hear the blaster fire; it was too close to them. He looked over at Zindo; he seemed to remain calm but he was anticipating the Jedi's next move. Zindo removed his lightsaber from his belt and held it in his right hand.  
"Get ready they're coming," Zindo warned them.  
Seren signalled to his officers and soldiers on the bridge to get into positions.  
"We end this now." Zindo said sharply.  
The blaster fire soon ended after a few moments.  
"Lock the blast doors!" Seren said.  
"Yes Admiral," One of the other officers replied, who was stood at a console.  
Seren watched as the second set of doors slid across; giving them an extra level of protection. It went silent for a few moments. He then heard something; it sounded like a lightsaber cutting through metal. "Oh no." Seren said under his breath.  
"Do not worry," Zindo said.  
They could start to see the whole through the door of where the lightsaber was coming from.  
"Do we have any more troops on board?" Zindo said.  
"Yes," Seren replied.  
"Order them here, now. We can trap the Jedi from both sides." Zindo said.  
Seren took out his own personal comm rather than using the ships intercom—that would warn the Jedi of their plan. "Captain bring all available troops to the bridge, to eliminate the Jedi threat."  
"Yes Admiral," Was the reply.

* * *

Kcaj had started cutting through the door after they had defeated the clones that were guarding the bridge doors. He had to make sure the cut through the door was big enough for them.  
"Time is against us," Barriss remarked, still holding on her lightsaber while looking down the corridor. "There is a good chance more troops will be on their way."  
"Yes I am aware of that," Kcaj said, more than half way through the cutting.  
They waited silently on alert for a few more minutes.  
"I can sense the Sith on the bridge," Luminara said. "He is waiting for us."  
"As can I," Kcaj agreed.  
"Great," Dango said, starting to get agitated.  
"Be calm. Don't get anxious." Luminara said. She gently sent used the Force on him to calm him down slightly. She turned to the bridge door as Kcaj had said he was finished. The molten metal collapsed fell to the ground. She immediately ignited her lightsaber, as she glimpsed the bridge. There were more troops and the Sith.  
"Let's go," Kcaj said, stepping through the doorway holding his lightsaber in his right hand.

One by one they made their way onto the bridge, parrying the lasers of the officers and clones that were stood there. Luminara focused on staying alive; sending a bolt straight back into a trooper. He glanced ahead and saw Bail Organa stood with the cloaked Sith and the Admiral. Luminara parried several more shots, using Form III Soresu with ease. She stood her ground sending the lasers back; sending one officer down to the ground from his own shot.  
"Surrender!" Kcaj exclaimed as he approached the Sith and the Admiral. Kcaj pointed his lightsaber up at the Sith, who remained still for the moment.  
"I don't think so," Zindo responded, his voice as cold as Ice. He ignited his lightsaber, it activated with the _snap-hiss _sound and it shone a dark red colour.  
Kcaj used Force Speed and charged towards the Sith to engage him. Their lightsabers clashed as they both came into range of each other, blue against the dark red lightsaber of the Sith.  
Zindo broke the deadlock, and then struck his blade towards the Ongree Jedi Master. Kcaj sidestepped and then thrust his blade towards Zindo. The Sith swung his blade to intercept Kcaj's strike with precision. Kcaj broke the deadlock using the Tràkata form he deactivated his lightsaber and reactivated it swiftly then stabbing it downwards towards the Sith's right knee. Zindo moved his blade to parry it, and then with his free hand he sent Kcaj a Force push. Kcaj went flying a few feet away and hit the ground hard.

* * *

Garm watched on the bridge as the starfighter came streaming past firing at the _Iziz, _their shields were up, but they were doing damage. It wouldn't be too long till the shields would be down; it would take even shorter for the smaller _Tantive IV_ to get damaged. "Carry on shooting them down, captain" He said loudly.  
"Yes senator," the bridge officer replied curtly.

* * *

Luminara Unduli engaged the Sith, letting the Force flow through her helping her stay focused and strong. The Sith thrust his lightsaber towards Luminara, but she brought her lightsaber up to block the strike; which she did elegantly. The red blade humming around her came at her again; strike after strike. Luminara parried each strike, keeping her feet movement to a bare minimum and holding her blade firmly. She could sense that there were more soldiers arriving on the bridge, but she didn't allow that to distract her for even a moment. She could soon hear the sound of laser fire, once again. She saw the red lightsaber coming at her again; she brought her blade up to parry the strike, and then she used the Tràkata form; deactivating her lightsaber quickly and then reactivating it and stabbing it downwards catching his right knee. It burnt straight through to his flesh, she saw him take a step away from the Jedi Master.  
"Surrender," Luminara offered. She already knew what his answer would be, they couldn't really take the risk of taking a Sith as a prisoner but they were Jedi and they did what was right.  
"No, I refuse your offer." He raised his hand and used the Force to lift her; she started moving but she raised her own free hand and sent a Force wave at the Sith. He was thrown off his feet and sent to the ground several feet away from where he had been standing. Luminara landed back on her feet.  
"You alright?" Kcaj said, walking over to her.  
"I'm okay thanks," Luminara replied. She watched as the Sith got back to his feet.  
Kcaj glanced around the huge bridge; they had pretty much finished disarming, injuring and killing the clone troopers that had been here on the bridge and the second lot that had arrived. Though the Jedi hadn't gone unscratched; Brinn Penn had suffered severe injuries and he was on his back being taken care of by Barriss Offee. Dango Roman had also suffered a few minor wounds and he was being looked after by Carolyn Sosa; she was no healer yet but she can help comfort him until they return to the _New Hope_. General Grievous had just cut down the two remaining He turned back to face the Sith as he reactivated his lightsaber.  
"You will die Jedi," The Sith said. "My name is Zindo; Sith Inquisitor You will do well to remember it."  
Zindo raised his free hand and sent a Force wave towards the Jedi. Both Jedi raised their free hands and countered it with their own Force wave. The Force wave's collided into each other and evaporated. Zindo then raced forwards using Force speed and his own stamina came racing towards the two Jedi Masters. There was no other way out apart from fighting them, and either dying, escaping somehow or killing them. The last option seemed impossible so it was one of the other the last minute Zindo Force jumped into the air to try and escape them. He had been betting on taking the two Masters by surprise but he was wrong. Coleman Kcaj Force jumped up slightly and pointing his blade upwards catching both of Zindo's legs making him fall in flight; he came tumbling down to the ground and his lightsaber fell out of his hands. Kcaj and Luminara turned around and saw him lying in a heap on the floor. He let out a grunt in pain; both his ankles had been amputated.  
"Now you surrender," Kcaj said. He saw General Grievous walking over to them. He bent down slightly and picked up Zindo's lightsaber and activated it.  
"I will not surrender," Zindo argued. He grunted again, while he lay on the floor.  
"This is our new ship." Grievous said. "Have it your way." He walked closer to Zindo and around him to his side.  
"Don't kill him." Kcaj said. "Jedi don't kill unarmed prisoners."  
"I am not a Jedi." Grievous countered. He then proceeded to stab the Inquisitor in the neck and back with his own lightsaber. "We couldn't take him as a prisoner anyway."  
"That is true, but he may have been able to tell us something about the Inquisitors and the Empire." Kcaj argued.  
"Too late." Grievous replied. "We should leave now."

* * *

"I sense they are still alive on that ship," Mace Windu said looking out of the bridge.  
"Sense some of the padawan's pain, I can." Yoda said followed by a shake of the head.  
An alarm on the bridge went off.  
"Generals, that Venator class star destroyer is hailing us." One of the battle droids said.  
"Answer it." Windu replied.  
Within a couple of seconds the main screen came on. General Grievous was stood on the screen.  
"This is my new ship, the _Crusader_. There is a second Venator class star destroyer that needs eliminating. The rest of this star destroyer's crew have surrendered to us for now. We will inform the other ships of our status. Over and out." Grievous said.  
"Alright, we will do." Windu replied. Then the message ended.

* * *

Soon enough the _Crusader_ turned around and along with the _Iziz _engaged the remaining star destroyer. Lasers and turbolasers flashed all over space; smashing against each other. The shields on the _Iziz _were soon brought offline.  
"The hulls' been damaged as has life support" One of the captains cried.  
"We won't be able to hold out for much longer," Another bridge officer said.  
"We can head to the other Venator class star destroyer. They'll need our help. Get to the escape pods and the two shuttles on board." Garm Bel Iblis said.  
"Yes Senator," The same officer responded.  
Garm Bel Iblis and some of the crew members headed to the shuttles and the rest tried to get to the escape pods. The remaining Venator class star destroyer continued firing at both the _Iziz _and the _Crusader_.  
"Got to escape," Garm said loudly as he hurried down the corridor to the small hangar bay.

* * *

Garm had only just left the _Iziz_ moments before it exploded into a huge burst of flames. The other shuttle hadn't enough time to escape. He wondered if any of the escape pods had escaped either. There were only six crew members excluding Garm himself who were on this shuttle.  
"Head to the other Venator class star destroyer," Garm ordered.  
"Alright," Said the pilot.

* * *

Soon the _Crusader _had destroyed the remaining Venator class star destroyer and their enemies had been eliminated. The leaders had decided to meet up on the _Crusader _to decide their next plan of action. They met in one of the briefing rooms on the _Crusader_ that was far bigger than the one on the _Tantive IV_. Grievous had ordered some of his remaining battle droids and his own astromech droid, to be brought onto the _Crusader_.

In the briefing room; Bail Organa, Coleman Kcaj, Grievous, Luminara Unduli, Mace Windu, Mon Mothma and Master Yoda were all present.  
"Who will look after Padme's children?" Mon Mothma said.  
"Separated they must be," Yoda said. "So that the emperor and his apprentice don't find them both."  
"Good idea. I will take the daughter." Bail Organa said. "We've not yet heard from our allies. It will take time for them to respond and act it seems."  
"We didn't get much luck in that department," Mon Mothma said. "Padme's body will be taken back to Naboo and buried."  
The Masters around the room nodded in agreement.  
"What about the boy?" Kcaj said, looking over at Master Windu and Master Yoda.  
"Send him to his home on Tatooine," Yoda. "Not ready to fight the Sith we are. Need more allies and more supporters we do. More ships we will need."


	17. Epilogue

Epilogue

The Jedi that had been on the _New Hope_ had been taken back to Rinn to settle in their new temple. They had soon found the power supply and source that made it easier to live in the temple. They would soon get used to living there. Cad Bane had been dropped off on Nar Shaddaa to look for more business. The remaing old Separatist leaders had also left for Nar Shaddaa and Nal Hutta look for new business.

* * *

It was night time on Naboo, there was crowd gathered in the street. A lot of them were holding lanterns, as they watched the Gungans and the members of the Naboo Royal family walk Padme Amidala's open coffin before they bury the body in the cemetery. Some people in the crowd were playing soft music to add to the sad atmosphere of the city.

"What a sad day this is. She was so young." One elderly woman said in the crowd.

"Yes, she had a whole future ahead of her." The man next to her shook his head.

Jar Jar Binks was one of the Gungans walking with the members of the Royal family. Jar Jar had his head down and his robe's hood up. Mesa going to miss her, she was my friend, she didn't have to die, Jar Jar thought to himself.

The _Tantive IV_ landed on Alderaan. Bail Organa took his new daughter to Leia to his wife to their home. She smiled as Bail greeted her.  
"This is our new daughter, Leia Organa," Bail said.  
His wife smiled warmly, taking Leia into her arms.

* * *

The _Crusader _dropped out of lightspeed, the desert planet of Tatooine was ahead. A shuttle flew down to the planet's atmosphere. It didn't take too long for the shuttle to enter the planet's atmosphere. Coleman Kcaj was flying the controls as Luminara Unduli held the child in her arms.  
"I sense the Force is strong in him," Luminara said, looking down at Luke. He was asleep for now.  
"Yes," Kcaj replied as they flew over the desert to the outskirts, to where Anakin's family lived.  
He could soon see their farm ahead through the small cockpit of the shuttle. They landed a couple of feet away from the farm. They could see Owen and Beru Lars coming over to greet them. Kcaj and Luminara exited the shuttle and they walked over to Owen and Beru.  
"Hello. This is Anakin's son. He needs a family to look after him." Luminara said smiling.  
Beru took Luke in open hands, with a warm smile. She turned and smiled at Owen. They both looked onto to the setting of the two suns in the horizon.  
"We will take good care of Luke," Owen said.  
Both Masters nodded then they headed back to the shuttle, and soon took off; to return to the _Crusader_in orbit. Once they had returned, they entered lightspeed; disappearing into space.

* * *

The End


End file.
